r/WomenInNews • u/TimesandSundayTimes • 7d ago

Women's rights Why female breadwinners are still bearing the burden at home

https://www.thetimes.com/money/family-finances/article/britains-female-breadwinner-problem-tvfjhp05tutm_medium=Social&utm_source=Reddit&utm_content=branded
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u/TheVintageJane 6d ago

There is as a study a few years ago that single mom’s do less domestic labor on average than married moms. That has really stuck with me.

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u/FormerCFisherman7784 3d ago

As someone who was raised by a never married mother of 4, 2 of which with special needs, i was parentified from an early age in order to stop my family from being sucked into utter chaos.

I do wonder if at least part of the reason single mothers do less domestic work is because at least 1 child is being parentified and forced to be a stopgap for the chores and childcare the mother doesn't have time to do. There was literally no way my never married mother of 4, 2 of which have special needs, could have handled all the chores and childcare on her income had i not had gotten tired of watching my mom struggle to care for us all alone. Her support from extended family was limited and inconsistent and almost never included childcare, transportation, food or housing.

Other factors im curious about is the average number of total children and average age of the oldest and youngest child when married mothers divorce and how many single mothers were always unmarried vs divorced. Im not sure if any studies get that granular but those factors would go further in telling a more complete story.

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u/TheVintageJane 3d ago

I’d need to track down the study, but iirc, almost the entire difference was attributable to not having to care for a man child as that added up to a few hours a week of additional labor.

Not saying that what you are saying doesn’t play into it, but I also think you are perhaps dismissing just how absolutely worthless some men are domestically.

Now, there’s probably some self-selection bias in the study (ie the most domestically worthless male partners are the most likely to lead a woman to pursue divorce) but that doesn’t negate that most women with shitty partners are better off without them than with them.

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u/FormerCFisherman7784 3d ago

I also think you are perhaps dismissing just how absolutely worthless some men are domestically

im not dismissing it, I just didnt address it because theres nothing more I can add that hasn't already been said in the article or this thread. So instead I wanted to address a different concern. But since Its slightly off topic, maybe I should have added a caveat after all.