Paid and unpaid work among fathers and mothers

In this report we describe changes and variation in coupled (married or cohabiting) fathers’ and mothers’ time spent on paid and unpaid work (household work) in the period 1970-2010. The analyses are based on Statistics Norway’s time use surveys from 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2010.

In 2010, fathers with a youngest child below 15 years of age spent on average 3 hours and 50 minutes per day on household work. This is 1 hour and 20 minutes more than in 1970. Fathers’ household work increased during the whole period, and particularly in the last decade (2000-2010). Fathers now spend more time than previously both on routine housework, childcare and other unpaid family work. The increase in fathers’ routine housework stems mostly from the fact that more fathers than previously do some housework every day. Fathers now spend less time on paid work than before, and the decrease was most significant during the 1970s and the 2000s. Fathers spend less time than before on paid work and more time on household work on weekdays as well as weekends.

Mothers’ household work, and particularly their routine housework, is significantly reduced since 1970. However, mothers’ spent approximately the same amount of time on household work in 2010 as in 2000. Mothers now allocate far more time to paid work than in 1970. While those with a youngest child below seven years of age increased their paid work during the whole period, mothers with older children spent no more time on paid work in 2010 than in 2000.

The presence of small children in the home has a larger impact on fathers’ time use than previously. In 1980, 1990 and 2000 there was no difference in time spent on paid work between fathers with young and older children, but in 2010 fathers with a youngest child 0-1 years spent less time on paid work than those with the oldest children (a youngest child 13-19 years of age). Both in 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2010 fathers with young children spent more time on household work, particularly on childcare, than fathers with the oldest children, but the difference has become more pronounced in recent decades. This partly stems from the significant increase in household work among fathers with the youngest children.

Whereas the age of the youngest child has a larger impact on fathers’ time use now than in the past, its impact on mothers’ time use has decreased. Mothers with younger children spend less time on paid work than those with the oldest children (a youngest child 13-19 years of age). I 1980 and 1990 this was the case for all mothers with a youngest child 0-12 years of age. In 2000 the difference in paid work time only applied to mothers with a youngest child 0-3 years of age, and in 2010 it was only mothers with a youngest child 0-1 years of age who spent less time on paid work than those with the oldest children.

Mothers with younger children spent more time on household work, particularly on childcare, than mothers with older children (13-19 years of age) both in 1980, 1990, 2000 and 2010. In 2000 and 2010 it was only mothers with children below seven years of age that spent less time on household work than mothers with older children. In 1980 and 1990 this was the case for mothers with a youngest child 7-12 years of age as well.

Except from the fact that fathers with small children have increased their household work more than fathers with older children since the 1970s, it seems to be only modest differences between groups of fathers when it comes to the growth in time spent on household work. This suggests that the increase in fathers’ household work is a general trend so that most fathers spend more time on unpaid family work today than in 1970.

As for fathers with a youngest child 0-6 years of age, the highly educated increased their household work more than lower educated in the last decade (2000-2010).