The majority of men would be unwilling to swap roles with their other halves who spend more time doing jobs around the house, according to the latest figures.
Arranging childcare seemed to be one of the main issues for male respondents to the survey conducted by Co-operative Food. The research was commissioned to coincide with the government’s Smart Swaps campaign, which is aiming to highlight how families can make simple changes to their lifestyle to achieve a healthier way of living.
Over half (56 per cent) of the 1,000 men questioned said that they would find it hard juggling work with childcare everyday.
However, this needn’t be the case – with many businesses now taking advantage of technology like video conferencing to allow employees to spend more time working from home. A separate study by Office Angels found that just over a third of those who were already involved in flexible working used it as an opportunity to help look after their children.
Other tasks like cooking for the family and being responsible for the weekly grocery shop were equally unpopular among male workers, while doing the cleaning was another chore they weren’t ready to give up their office life for.
In comparison, over half of the 1,000 female respondents said they felt as though they juggled more during their daily routine than their partner – although just 27 per cent admitted they would be interested in swapping their tasks around.
Co-operative Food’s diet and health manager Janet Taylor said: “Even though, in many households, women also have full-time jobs, it seems that lots of other chores, including housework, running around after the kids and making sure everyone is organised, often falls to the female.”
She added that the study concluded both men and women were “happy” with their current roles and that teamwork was “key to running an efficient and healthy household”.
