In the decadent 70s, men had it easy!

Everybody talks about how the 1970s sucked. Including me. I thought it was a generally sleazy decade, and I lived through it. Fashion and art seemed to be on the decline, and we had Vietnam, Nixon (who was IMO unjustly maligned), then Ford, then Carter, and I guess the Ayatollah Khomeini. Ugh.

Except I saw something today that gave me pause. Men had it much better than they do today.

Especially if they got married.

Check out this graph showing how much less housework married men did in those days compared to now:

Caption: Weekly hours of basic housework by gender and marital status. (Credit: UM Institute for Social Research)

As you can see, before marriage, single men did a certain amount of housework (just as they do today), but after marriage, that declined substantially. (Unlike today.)

Bear in mind that the article in which I found this is not about the 1970s, and only shows it by way of contrast. But the unforgettable message is that in the 1970s, men had an incentive to marry. Today, it is very different. Single men still do about the same amount of housework as they did in the 1970s, but after they marry, it increases substantially.

Not only that, but if we look at the proportional increases of housework and compare men and women, we can see that for men who marry, the amount of housework they end up doing goes up — at a proportionately greater rate than women.

What this means is that because of the increase in housework, neither sex has an incentive to marry, but men have far more of a disincentive to marry than do women.

I say this by way of background, to explain why I take issue with the story headline:

Exactly How Much Housework Does A Husband Create?

Sure, a husband creates more housework. But so does a wife! And if a wife creates a proportionately larger increase in housework for the male than a husband does for the female, then I would respectfully (yeah, I’m old-fashioned) suggest that the headline is biased. So to rectify the bias, I corrected it:

To be completely fair, the headline should reflect the fact that for everyone who marries (no doubt including gay couples) marrying creates more housework than remaining single. But when it creates proportionately more additional housework for men than for women, it is simply unfair to point at men as if they are the problem.

Little wonder so many men balk at marriage. In the old days, it meant less housework. Now it means more.

So when the marriage activists say “Man Up!” they’re really saying “Put On that Apron!”

(Men can hardly be blamed if they start asking “What’s in it for me?”)

MORE: In a somewhat different context, Dr. Helen hits the nail on the head:

Here is the problem: there is no incentive to grow up anymore.

There is a disincentive, especially for men.