Filipino men now more into house chores - study

Filipino men are getting more and more involved in household work, a study by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) showed. NSCB said based on its examination of three studies that presented data on unpaid housework gathered from 1979 to 2000, Filipino men – who are traditionally known to shun house chores – have been getting a “fairer share" in household work. A comparison of data gathered from the three studies indicate that the amount of time per day that is spent by Filipino men doing household chores dramatically increased in 2000 compared to the amount of time men spent doing chores in 1979 and 1985-1990. “In 1979, the unpaid hours of work of single and married men were posted at 1.714 and 2.629 (per day), respectively. From 1985-1990, unpaid housework was registered at 1.875 hours," NSCB said. “But in 2000, this jumped to 5.054 hours for the employed and 4.906 hours for the unemployed or outside the labor force," it noted. NSCB, however, admitted that the surveys used as basis for this study had limited sample sizes and covered different municipalities and provinces and, thus, are not strictly comparable. In the study, NSCB also noted that while Filipino men are now spending more time doing house chores than before, their female counterparts still do the bigger chunk of household chores. “Consistent with the general belief that women are working longer hours at home than men, data from 1979 to 2000 show that indeed, women’s unpaid housework is greater than men," NSCB said. "While men are now getting their fairer share of housework, the amount of time spent by women housework continues to increase," it added. NSCB noted that in 1979, the unpaid hours of work of single and married women were posted at 3.043 hours and 7.929 hours, respectively, while from 1985-1990, unpaid housework was registered at 6.575 hours. In 2000 employed Filipino women spent 6.554 hours doing household work while unemployed women spent 8.034 hours for the unemployed. “This then tells us that the additional hours spent by men on housework do not necessarily translate to less hours of work for women," NSCB said. - Cheryl Arcibal, GMANews.TV