Domestic chores, a factor of inequality between girls and boys aged 10 and over

INEQUALITIES – Setting the table or clearing it, tidying your room, taking care of a pet or even vacuuming…: domestic tasks for which 10-year-old children are regularly asked to do at home. But are girls and boys equally?

This is the question that the National Institute of Demographic Studies (INED) wanted to answer. In his newsletter Population & Societies published this Wednesday, December 18, the institute explains having interviewed 7,361 children aged 10 to 11 face-to-face on participation in domestic chores.

First lesson: in the vast majority of families, children are responsible for two main tasks: setting or clearing the table and taking care of pets – for those who have them. On a daily basis, four out of ten children set the table and five out of ten take care of the animals. Furthermore, nine out of ten children say they clean their room punctually, whether or not it is shared with brothers and sisters. Other domestic tasks in which children occasionally participate are helping in the kitchen or cleaning (six out of ten children), taking care of the laundry (six out of ten) or even taking out the trash (four out of ten).

Reproduction of gender stereotypes

What INED shows is that from the age of ten, parents participate in the reproduction of gender stereotypes by asking girls more than boys to carry out domestic tasks. If setting or clearing the table is done by both boys and girls, more of the latter take care of the animals, tidy their rooms or help with the laundry and cooking. They also do this work more often. Only one task is done more by boys: taking out the trash.

By comparing these data with the division of domestic labor among parents, the two researchers behind the study found that “In families where mothers do the vast majority of domestic work, boys perform slightly fewer tasks than girls.” Same observation when parents participate more or less equally. On the other hand, in the few families interviewed where fathers are more involved, children carry out fewer domestic tasks on a daily basis, both girls and boys.

Another element highlighted by INED: family configuration has an influence on children’s participation in household chores. Thus, when they are only children, their involvement is less than when they have brothers and sisters. To explain it, the authors hypothesize that “children would be in greater demand when the total domestic workload is higher”. “It is also possible that parents of large families, in an effort to learn about equality between brothers and sisters and the meaning of common life, organize “turns” or request the joint participation of the children”they are still moving forward.

Boys rewarded more

As for single parents – mothers most of the time – they are less likely to ask their children for housework or cooking, even if the domestic workload falls entirely on them. This can be explained, estimate the INED researchers, by “greater difficulties in obtaining mobilization of children”. “It is also possible that single mothers or fathers protect their children from excess domestic work. »

The last major lesson from the INED study: the more families belong to a popular socio-professional category (worker or agricultural), the greater the participation of girls in collective domestic tasks. Conversely, daughters of executives help less often with cleaning or laundry, but tend to tidy up their own rooms more often. This is partly due, explains INED, to the more frequent recourse in these families to the employment of a paid person to take care of the household. It is also among senior children that the differences between girls and boys are smallest.

INED was also interested in the remuneration for these services or small jobs carried out by children: a third of parents say they give pocket money in exchange for carrying them out. With, once again, a significant gender bias, since it is boys who are more rewarded by this financial advantage. Half of the parents interviewed also declared “always promote children’s help with domestic chores with encouraging words”a way according to them to positively involve children in daily domestic tasks.

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