[Rocío Fuentes C.]

Why does it seem that men don't want to share 50-50 in domestic work with their partner?

User Detail :  

Name : Rocío Fuentes C., Gender : F, Age : 24, City : México D. F., State : CA Country : Mexico, Occupation : Anthropologyst, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Lucy-H22671]

Whether or not a man thinks he needs to share domestic duties has a lot to do with how he was raised. If a man is raised in a household or culture where men don't do housework, chances are he will have the expectaion that housework is someone else's job - most likely his wife's. This situation is OK if the wife stays home and the husband works outside the home. In that case, it makes sense for the wife to do most of the housework. But in situations where both husband and wife work outside the home, it is only fair that both do the housework.

User Detail :  

Name : Lucy-H22671, Gender : F, Race : Hispanic/Latino (may be any race), Age : 25, City : San Jose, State : CA Country : United States, Occupation : Engineer, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[GARY]

Both myself and my wife are lawyers. We have two kids, two cars, a mortgage, and once had several dogs. My wife hired a maid to clean, cook, shop for groceries and care for our kids while we work. Now that's okay if that's the way she wants to do things. But I happen to know for a fact that my wife, although I love her, is a lazy, shiftless, totally undomesticated woman. She will not do any work at home no matter what. So, given this, I have formed my own personal opinion on something here: Women of today want to be too much like men. Now, I know that sounds sexist but hold your judgement for a moment. My mother raised three sons all alone while she worked full-time. We never had a maid and no one did our cooking and cleaning for us. My mother came home from work everyday and made dinner. She did the laundry on the weekends. She ironed all of the clothes and did all of the shopping. The more women I talk to from my mother's generation and older, it seems that they were much better, on the whole, at keeping not only a husband, but a home. You women of the post-female-revolution period have disoriented us guys. Now it seems you want the corporate corner office and the box of roses too. I think guys today don't want to share 50-50 because we can't always be sure if the women we live with, actually have penises!

User Detail :  

Name : GARY, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Jewish, Age : 38, City : Los angeles, State : CA Country : United States, Occupation : professional, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, 

[Dan31662]

That's not quite how it is with my mom and dad. They both work outside the home at full time jobs. Yet my mom works 40 square hours a week as a secretary, and my dad works 60 to 80 extremely stressful hours a week as a police detective. He commutes an hour one-way to downtown L.A. while my mom drives 10 minutes down the road. It's not uncommon for him to come home at midnight and have to leave at 6 or 7 a.m. the next morning, or to come home at 6 p.m. and have to leave at 4 a.m. Not to mention the apalling stress of the job itself. So he doesn't lift a finger, and none of us would ever insist that he do so. He works far harder than any of us, and if he made the same amount of money as my mom we'd be living in the ghetto. The housework is divided up between my mom, myself, and my brother. If there's a big outdoor job to do then I'm the one for that, and my mom is the handywoman of the family.

User Detail :  

Name : Dan31662, Gender : M, Race : Hispanic/Latino (may be any race), Religion : Pentecostal Christian, Age : 21, City : L.A. area, State : CA Country : United States, Occupation : Student, Social class : Lower middle class, 

[Jennifer30878]

Because housework is boring, detailed, dirty, time-consuming, repetitive, annoying, difficult work. If it were easy and fun, everyone would want to do it. I hate dusting, washing dishes, cooking, straightening up and cleaning, and would far rather sit around watching sports or sleeping. Men have devised the 'women's work' thing to avoid doing something most people hate, specifically housework. In men's defense, however, they tend to handle household repairs, mowing the lawn, heavy lifting, and so forth, and one could make an argument that they ARE sharing the work in this manner (although those chores come along much less frequently).

User Detail :  

Name : Jennifer30878, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Age : 25, City : Washington, State : DC Country : United States, Occupation : Editor, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

[Steve27630]

This is a constant source of 'discussion' between my wife and I. There are probably many reasons, but let me give you my two:
1) Housework is boring, which I admit is lame, but nonetheless, anything boring is worth trying to weasel out of.
2) There are different standards, and the man can't win. In a male/female household, the expectations of what constitutes a 'clean house' or 'laundry done right' or 'putting the dishes in the dishwasher before bedtime' are often widely different. My observation (admitting total subjectivity) is that women not only want men to do their share of the housework, but to do it to their standards and timing. It's not the 'please do half the housework' that bothers me, it's the 'and do it my way' that is the problem. So if faced with the demand of doing something, yet no matter how I do it, it's wrong or not on time, I would rather save the time and take my tongue-lashing once.

User Detail :  

Name : Steve27630, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 43, City : Houston, State : TX Country : United States, Occupation : engineer, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, 

[Cal29018]

Because men are responsible for killing bugs and auotombile maintenance. Why must all duties be shared equally. As an anthropologist, surely you know that nearly every society has some type of division of labor based on sex. Feminists assume that women got stuck with domestic chores because men are dominant and we got first pick. I think most married couples just settle into a division of labor that works for them. In my case, I do the laundry and my wife does the shopping and pays the bills. Cleaning is shared about the same. She does most of the cooking and I do all of the house and garden maintenance. Now that our kids are old enough they are doing their own laundry and they cook at least one night a week. I would not recommend this for anyone anymore than I would recommend splitting every task 50/50, but it works for us.

User Detail :  

Name : Cal29018, City : Lakewood, State : CA Country : United States, 

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