Don't you love it when researchers confirm what you've been saying all along...especially when they are Stanford University researchers?

You may remember my rant...er, blog, about working outside the home.  There, I bemoaned the fact that women’s work is often under-appreciated and under-valued.  I continually remind my spouse and kids that I was always working;  now I am working both inside and outside the home. (Sometimes, when I am working at home, I am working outside the home, inside it. Wow! This could be like a literary M.C. Escher!)

Anyway, a recent Stanford study, “Housework is an Academic Issue,” found that  female scientists spend nearly twice as much time on household chores such as cleaning, laundry, and cooking, as their male counterparts (http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/academe/2010/JF/feat/schie.htm).

Londa Schiebinger and Shannon K. Gilmartin write, “Partnered women scientists at places like Stanford University do 54 percent of the cooking, cleaning, and laundry in their households; partnered men scientists do just 28 percent. This translates to more than ten hours a week for women— in addition to the nearly sixty hours a week they are already working as scientists—and to just five hours for men. When the call came from Stockholm early one October morning, Nobel Prize– winner Carol W. Greider was not working in her lab or sleeping. She was doing laundry.”

I’ll bet you’re not surprised.

Topics: Education , Home Management