Study finds women breadwinners are still doing the majority of household chores

Female breadwinners are four times more likely to do the majority of chores, according to a new study.

Research has found that women are still doing the majority of household chores,regardless of the fact that the number of female breadwinners is increasing.

Despite a 30% rise in women out-earning their partners (since 2014), housework is still falling to females.

A study - carried out by life insurance broker LifeSearch - found that almost half (45%) of female breadwinners said they did most of the chores in their house, compared to just 12% of male breadwinners.

What’s more, men are also twice as likely to do no chores at all.

It also found that women earning more than their male partner would spend an average of 7.5 hours a week on household tasks. The equivalent to an extra working day, every week.

The news follows a report from earlier this year that showed women carry out more housework than men in 93% of British households.

This is even the case when both partners are working full-time jobs.

Study leader Professor Anne McMunn refers to this as a 'second shift' for women who have finished work.

'These results matter because this is extra work which women are doing for free – as housework is unpaid,' she said.

'We don’t think this is an active choice on the part of men to try to keep women down.

'But even these days it still tends to be the case that if there is something which needs doing in the home, women just do it.

'This has been described as a ‘second shift’ for women, who come home from work and start doing more in the form of household chores.

‘Men still earn more than women, on average, and that gives them a little more leverage in terms of negotiating housework.

'Things are not changing as fast in the domestic sphere as we might have thought, so we need to raise awareness and think a bit more about it.'