Men and women do not share chores!
There was a time, not so long ago, when men proudly displayed their photos on social networks in front of the stove or performing household chores. It was a time when Mankind, taken aback by an unprecedented health crisis, began to dream of a better and more equitable tomorrow. This commendable attitude only lasted for a small number or years…
In its report on the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economic, social, and psychological situation of households in Morocco, the High Commission for Planning (HCP) announces a return to good old habits: “Return to the usual time allocated to pre-pandemic household chores and disengagement of men after their involvement during the quarantine period”, said the HCP in its monitoring of the evolution of social relations between men and women in terms of time use in all its dimensions.
The reader learns that the average time reserved for housework (cooking, dishes, laundry, etc.) is 2 hours in total per day. Except that on closer inspection, the High Commission specifies that women devote 3 hours 51 minutes to housework and men only 05 minutes! It is even specified that it is married women who toil most with more than 4 hours and 45 minutes versus 2 hours 52 minutes for singles. Women working outside the home do not escape from cleaning chores either, since they devote 3 hours and 17 minutes to them.
The average time assigned to this type of task has dropped by 40 minutes for men, compared to the lockdown period where this time recorded an average increase of 33 minutes per day compared to a normal day before the lockdown period. It should be noted that this activity, as painful as it is, almost concerned mainly women, all social categories combined, since 92% of them were involved versus 24% of men at the national level. The proportion of men involved in this work has declined by almost half compared to the lockdown period, i.e. 45% at the national level, 49% in urban areas, and 37% in rural areas.
When it comes to domestic chores outside the home (shopping, paying bills, administrative affairs, water, and wood supply, and other chores), men are more involved, since they devote 33 minutes to them, whereas women do not exceed 26 minutes a day. This situation has not changed compared to the pre-pandemic period for more than 90% of the men and women concerned. However, some activities, even external ones, concern women more, such as the average time allocated to school support for children under 15 years of age. 27% of women are more involved than men (20%). Women also spend five times more time caring for children within the household than men. This is an inequitable distribution since men do not exceed four minutes a day versus 24 minutes for women. However, there are a few Moroccan households where task sharing is a reality. They are one in ten couples who have adopted this distribution of tasks, namely among couples with a higher level of education.
A. Bo
