London - It’s been a long time coming, but men are finally catching up with women in their contribution to the household chores.
The gap between the hours they toil and those their wife or girlfriend puts in has been narrowing at the dizzying rate of 27 minutes a decade.
But over 30 years, that represents a substantial transformation. Men have increased the amount of time they spend on domestic duties by more than 60 percent.
Taking all employed and non-employed partners into account, the average woman now works five hours, 55 minutes a day on employment and chores.
Men spend five hours, 37 minutes. At current rates, the 18-minute gap would be closed by the end of the decade. Women sleep an extra 14 minutes each night.
For the overworked woman struggling to balance a job and home life, this has meant they have regained 40 minutes a day since the 1980s.
But there still appear to be some areas where the modern male draws the line. They spend just four minutes a week on laundry and ironing.
The picture changes dramatically when only employed partners are included in the figures.
According to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, a working man spends an average of 38.4 hours a week in paid employment compared with 33.3 hours for the average employed woman.
On the domestic front, the employed man spends two hours 28 minutes on chores, while the woman does four hours and 40 minutes.
While the gap remains large, the male workload has increased by almost an hour since the 1970s.
Recently, 180 experts gathered at Oxford University to study how we use time, analysing figures from the past half century from 60 surveys in 25 countries.
Professor Jonathan Gershuny, director of the centre for time use research at Oxford University and co-author of a new report, Gender Convergence in Domestic Work, said: “The idea of what it is to be a man is changing.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if man overtakes woman in total hours worked. But while men are doing more cooking and home work, they are doing no extra laundry whatsoever. I’m guilty of that, too.”
Dr Colin Gill, a psychologist, said: “Today it is the men who are feeling the greatest pressure.
“They are much more worried about their status.
“It may mean they are taking on more work in the home not simply to save or preserve their money but also to assert their masculinity.” - Daily Mail