Advertisement

Gender gap: Spanish women do twice as much unpaid work as men

Fiona Govan
Fiona Govan - [email protected]
Gender gap: Spanish women do twice as much unpaid work as men
Photo: AndreyPopov/Depositphotos"

New data confirms the burden of running a home and raising a family falls firmly on the woman’s shoulders, even if she is in full time work.

Advertisement

The latest report from Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE) reveals that women spend almost twice as much time toiling in unpaid work than their male partners.

Spanish women spend an average of 26.5 hours a week doing unpaid work such as raising children, cooking and cleaning, household chores and caring for relatives, while the men get away with just 14 hours.

Surprisingly, the division of household labour does not much depend on who is the main breadwinner.

While women who work only part time do an average of 29.6 hours of unpaid work (compared to 13.9 hours for men), those women in full time work scarcely do less in the home, 25.2 hours (compared to a steady 13.9 for men).

The only gender equality when it comes to housework is found in bachelors who live alone who spend 11 hours a week involved in unpaid work, getting closer to the 13.3 hours for single women.

Although Spain's come a long way from the Franco era when a woman's role was firmly in the home and she needed permission from her husband to get a job, open a bank account, own property or even travel away from home, there is still a long way to go.

READ: Five reasons why Spain is still failing on women's rights

In Spain, women earn an average of 19.3 percent less than men in a gender pay gap that is narrower than the EU average of 23.4 percent.

Only in older age when it comes to caring for the grandchildren does the work get divided more equally. The study showed that a grandparent spend an average of 16 hours a week caring for a grandchild, irrespective of whether they were a grandfather or grandmother.

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also