{"id":10327,"date":"2019-09-24T11:01:58","date_gmt":"2019-09-24T16:01:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/among-u-s-couples-women-do-more-cooking-and-grocery-shopping-than-men\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T01:17:58","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T06:17:58","slug":"among-u-s-couples-women-do-more-cooking-and-grocery-shopping-than-men","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2019\/09\/24\/among-u-s-couples-women-do-more-cooking-and-grocery-shopping-than-men\/","title":{"rendered":"Among U.S. couples, women do more cooking and grocery shopping than men"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Nearly<\/a><\/p>\n

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(Allison Shelley\/For The Washington Post via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n\n

More than half of married couples in the United States say sharing household chores<\/a> is \u201cvery important\u201d to a successful marriage. But when it comes to grocery shopping and cooking, women tend to say they\u2019re the ones usually doing the work, according to a time-use survey sponsored by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

\"Women<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

In U.S. households consisting of married or cohabiting parents and one or more children under the age of 18, 80% of mothers say they are the household member who usually prepares the meals \u2013 the same as the share who say they are the primary grocery shopper, according to a Pew Research Center analysis. Some 71% of moms say they primarily handle both chores.<\/p>\n\n

This compares with about two-in-ten fathers in this type of household who say they are the person who usually prepares the meals (19%) or grocery shops (20%). About one-in-ten (11%) say they are the one who usually does both tasks.<\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

Dads are about twice as likely as moms to say these chores are split equally: 20% of dads say meal preparation is split equally, compared with 10% of moms. There is a similar pattern for grocery shopping (23% vs. 11%).<\/p>\n\n

Given that moms are much more likely than dads to say they are the primary meal preparers, it\u2019s not surprising that they spend more time than dads, on average, on meal preparation \u2013 which includes food and kitchen cleanup after meals.<\/p>\n\n

Moms spend an average of 68 minutes per day on meal preparation, vs. 23 minutes for dads. Among parents who usually<\/i> prepare the meals, mothers spend more than an hour (about 75 minutes) on average on it per day, compared with 43 minutes among fathers. The gender difference persists among parents who say they do not<\/em>\u00a0usually handle meal preparation: Mothers in this category spend an average of 30 minutes on meal prep daily, while fathers spend around 15 minutes.<\/p>\n\n

Among parents who grocery shop, meanwhile, the average length of time spent at the grocery store in a day is about the same for both moms and dads (roughly 45 minutes each).<\/p>\n\n

Same pattern among childless couples<\/h4>\n\n
\"How<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

In households consisting of two married or cohabiting adults and no <\/em>children, men and women fill less of their time with these chores \u2013 but women still report spending more time in the kitchen. Overall, women spend 52 minutes a day on meal prep, vs. 22 minutes for men.<\/p>\n\n

Women in this group who usually prepare meals spend around an hour a day (59 minutes) on average on prep, while men who usually do this spend an average of 39 minutes per day on these tasks.<\/p>\n\n

Women without kids who don\u2019t usually prepare meals still report spending 23 minutes on that task, on average. Men spend an average of just 14 minutes.<\/p>\n\n

Over the past 50 years, American women (particularly mothers) have increased the amount of time they spend in paid work, and men (especially fathers)<\/a> have taken on more obligations at home. Still, on average, U.S. women spend fewer hours<\/a> in paid work than men, which may partially explain the gender imbalance in time spent on food prep and grocery shopping.<\/p>\n\n

About this analysis<\/div>