By Amy S. Choi • 11 years ago

Chart of the Day: Today’s working moms devote more time to child care than in the ’60s

In a study of modern parenthood, the Pew Research Center has found that working mothers spend more hours both at paid work and at child care than they did in 1965. They are spending significantly less time doing housework. Working fathers, on the other hand, are devoting fewer hours to paid work but far more doing housework and child care, though the number of hours is still less than that of their female counterparts. Men also tend to spend more time than women doing leisure activities.

More than half of all working parents say they have difficulty balancing work and family duties, though they don’t believe it impedes their ability to be good parents. The majority of women rank themselves highly as parents, with 78 percent of working mothers say they doing an excellent or very good job as parents. Fathers are much more likely than mothers to worry that they aren’t spending enough time with their kids. Again, better work-life policies would help everyone.

 

Read more about

Join the Conversation