Home is where the hard work begins
By Mark Doman, published 29 May 2018
We’d all like to think boys and girls are born into this world with an equal shot at life. But for girls, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest the odds aren’t in their favour.
So where does this divide begin? Are we as adults unwittingly perpetuating gender disparities?
Findings from a survey of more than 10,000 Australian primary and high school students, reveal warning signs that gender inequality could be weighing on women much earlier than you might expect.
The Kids Contribute survey, conducted by University of Melbourne researchers with the ABC’s Behind the News program, quizzed students on the ways they help out at home, at school and in the community.
We asked kids how they felt about helping out around the house ABC News
Students were asked questions about how often they helped with things such as looking after family members, the cleaning up, raising money or helping out with school events.
The survey showed almost all children are contributing at home, school and in the community.
“I think it’s important to celebrate how much children are contributing, that they feel good about it and that they’re motivated by wanting to help others,” said Lisa Gibbs, a University of Melbourne researcher analysing the results and director of the Jack Brockhoff Child Health and Wellbeing program.
But it also revealed Australian girls are doing more housework compared to their male counterparts, they’re helping out more at school and are contributing more to local clubs compared to boys.
And, for those who get pocket money as a reward, girls are also being paid less than boys.
Around the house, the survey revealed girls were more likely to help out with all cleaning and caring roles.
For cleaning and tidying up around the house, 60 per cent of girls said they did this regularly (responding “Often” or “A lot”), compared to 50 per cent of boys.
About 51 per cent of girls said they regularly looked after siblings compared to 42 per cent of boys.
It’s not just in the home where girls are helping out more often than boys.
There were similar findings in both schools and at sports clubs.
At school, 81 per cent of girls said they regularly helped other people feel better when they were sad or angry, compared to 63 per cent of boys.
Girls were also much more likely than boys to help out at school events, help raise money and help care for the environment.
In fact, in all but two questions in the survey girls contributed more often than boys.
The exceptions were helping adults with technology at home and helping others online.
Libby Lyons, director of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), said it appeared to be mirroring a trend that women face later in life.
“Women still bear the brunt of unpaid care in Australia,” Ms Lyons said.
Data from the 2016 census showed the typical Australian woman spent between five and 14 hours a week doing unpaid domestic housework. For the typical Australian man it was less than five hours a week.
“The issue, clearly, is starting with children and it follows women right throughout their lives and into retirement.”
This disproportionate share of housework is one of the key barriers to closing the pay gap between men and women, according to the WGEA.
One argument is that women who do more housework than their partner are more likely to sacrifice work.
So girls are telling us they’re doing more at home, that means they’re paid more pocket money right…?
Wrong.
Not only were a greater proportion of boys getting pocket money, 53 per cent of males compared to 49 per cent of females, they were also more likely to get paid more, according to the survey.
Students were asked how much pocket money they got for doing chores, ranging from less than $5 per week to more than $25 per week.
Boys were more likely than girls to receive pay in the four highest brackets.
Eleven per cent of boys received more than $25 a week, compared to 7 per cent of girls. Five per cent of boys received $20-$25 compared to 4 per cent of girls.
Girls were also more likely to dominate the lowest pocket money brackets, or not be paid at all.
It’s a worrying result that requires further investigation, professor Lisa Gibbs said.
“As a female, it concerns me but we need to look more closely to find out what is happening because the data is also showing us that girls are more resilient. So who is missing out — the girls or the boys?” she said.
She noted the data doesn’t show whether the imbalance is between siblings or families.
According to WGEA data, men working full-time get paid on average 15 per cent more than women working full-time. By retirement, the superannuation gap between men and women is more than 40 per cent.
Libby Lyons said cultural stereotypes of women doing traditionally feminine domestic chores such as cooking and cleaning without pay were a factor in the pay gap.
“We have to address and challenge these stereotypes that say this is the sort of work that women do and this is the sort of work that men do,” she said.
“And clearly the results of this survey are telling us that we have to challenge those stereotypes in the home, from when children first start to help around the home.”
Ms Lyons said the findings should serve a wake-up call to parents who may be reinforcing these stereotypes without even realising it.
“It’s really legitimising the undervaluing of women’s work if we say it’s ok to pay girls and boys differently as such a young age.”
Interestingly, it turns out pocket money may not even be that great of a reward to get kids to help out in this first place.
We asked some children what they thought about getting pocket money and helping out around the house. Most agreed that while chores weren’t that fun, helping out the family was a positive experience.
“When I do chores it makes me feel like I’m helping around, taking a burden off my parents because they do work a lot,” 15-year-old Zoe said.
Seven-year-old Radha said: “I think it’s fair that we all contribute to the house because it’s our house and it’s our responsibility to look after it.”
The children surveyed said they were much more likely to help out for altruistic rather than monetary reasons.
For example, 50 per cent of girls and 37 per cent of boys said they helped out “to make the world a better place”.
The results were similar for the response “to help others feel better”.
“I don’t think I need the pocket money, I made the mess I should clean it up. I shouldn’t get someone else to clean up my own mess,” 11-year-old Bronwyn told us.
Angus, 13, said he wasn’t in it for the money either. “You don’t want to start getting into a habit where you’re only doing something because you’re going to get paid for it.”
But not all kids feel the same way, according to the survey. Nineteen per cent of boys said they help out because they get paid or a reward, slightly higher than 15 per cent of girls.
Boys were also more likely than girls to say they helped out because they didn’t have a choice.
“On the one hand, I think that’s great because they [the girls] recognise the value of what they’re doing,” professor Gibbs said.
“But on the other it sounds suspiciously like a childcare worker, where there’s a lot of reward in what they’re doing but they’re not getting paid a fair amount.”
When it came to how kids felt while contributing, overall, children said they felt pretty good about the contribution they made.
Boys were more likely to feel annoyed, pressured and tired while contributing. But only a small proportion of kids said they had these negative feelings while helping out.
More than a third of girls and a quarter of the boys said they felt happy while helping. A similar percentage of children said they felt proud while helping out.
“We all feel good if we make a contribution and it’s great to see that’s happening for the kids,” professor Gibbs said.
“We need to remember that it’s a valuable experience. A chore is not just an unwelcome experience, it’s actually something that makes you feel part of your family or the place where you’re learning or playing sport. After all, our research showed that the children who are contributing more also tend to be more resilient.”
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