When it comes to leisure, men have time on their side, according to a new study.
For the first time since the 1960s, men reported having significantly more leisure hours than women, according to Dr. Geoffrey Godbey and Dr. John Robinson, co-authors of the newest edition of “Time for Life: The Surprising Ways Americans Use Their Time” (Penn State Press, $24.95). They studied diaries of more than 10,000 respondents of all ages across the country, and found men reporting five more hours of free time per week: 43.6 hours versus 38.5 hours for women. In earlier studies from 1965, 1975 and 1985, men reported only one to two hours more free time than women reported.
“It seems women are bailing out of housework at a slower rate than they are taking on more paid work,” Godbey said. “Although men do more housework than they did in the ’60s, they haven’t increased their housework duties since the ’80s.”
Despite the study’s title, the numbers come as no surprise to some people around Chicago.
“Of course men have way more leisure time than women,” said waitress Irene Morrissey, 38, from New Lenox. “When my husband comes home from work, his day is done. When I get home from work, my real work begins. I have to clean, cook, help the kids with their homework. If my soap opera’s on and it’s time to make dinner–I make dinner.”
Women spend almost twice as much time as men on housework each week, according to another recent study, the Bounty Home Care Council Survey of America’s Cleaning Habits.
“Male home responsibilities are generally more seasonal,” said retiree John Mitchell, 66, of Kenilworth. “Men cut the grass in the summer and have little to do around the house in the winter. Women’s responsibilities never end.”
Many couples say that men and women should share household chores if both work outside of the home. But according to a recent Virginia Slims opinion poll, despite men’s growing appreciation of the stresses women are under, women still do most chores.
“When it comes down to it, running the home and taking care of the children are still considered the woman’s primary responsibility–even if they both work,” said Karen Soenen, 32, from Burr Ridge, a part-time saleswoman and mother of two.
And taking care of children may be a bigger job today. According to the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, children spend less time playing independently.
“Kids are much more involved today,” Soenen said. “There are even activities for babies like wiggle-worm classes. Many moms spend most of their day driving the kids here and there.”
“Women have to be extremely organized just to catch a few hours of leisure,” said stay-at-home mom Margaret Tilson, 39, from Wilmette. “When I do manage to get time away from my kids, I feel guilty.”
Adds Melissa Stoller, 35, a scientist at the University of Chicago and mother of three who lives in Wilmette: “If you’re a woman, you feel like there’s always something more you could be doing with the house, the kids. It’s hard to just sit on the couch and watch TV. I think men feel much less guilty about having free time, because their responsibilities are clearly defined.”
The guilt may stem from the fact that women tend to have dual role models.
“What’s behind women’s frustrations in today’s day and age is that they want to uphold the same standards for their household as their mothers had and also the same career standards as their fathers,” said Lonnie Golden, a Penn State University professor of economics and business, and co-editor of “Working Time: International Trends, Theory and Policy,” to be released this summer by Routledge Press.
Many say that home and children responsibilities keep women busier today, but some say men make leisure time a higher priority even than marriage and kids. Jerry Jacobs, a University of Pennsylvania professor of sociology, polled graduating college seniors in 1999 and found 64 percent of men labeled leisure time a high priority when job seeking. Only 43 percent of women found opportunity for leisure an important job attribute.
“Even when men put more hours in at work, they make up for it by not feeling responsible for taking care of things on an ongoing basis at home,” Jacobs said.
Knowing how to draw that line may have historical roots.
“Men have a more defined line between work and leisure,” Godbey said. “Culturally it could date back to industrial work. The whistle blew once and men knew it was time for work. The whistle blew again, and it was time for leisure.”
Or nature could be a reason.
“I think men have more leisure time than women because women are gatherers and men are hunters by nature,” said elementary school teacher Shannon Jancich, 33, from Hammond, Ind. “Men go for the big kill–tackle a big project–and it’s over. Gathering takes all your time.”
But some say the gender difference is a matter of definition.
“Women are less apt to sit on their butts and do nothing when they have ample time. Instead they use their time away from work as an opportunity to open up their lives with engaging activities with their children, with their community,” said Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt, a historian at the University of Iowa, co-director of the Society for the Reduction of Human Labor, and author of “Kellogg’s Six-Hour Day” (Temple University Press, $24.95). “The complaints that women have less leisure might stem from the fact that women don’t define leisure in the same way that modern men do.”
