Men & house hold chores...

Korean men spend the least amount of time doing housework as reported lately in Yahoo.

Southern European and Asian men were least likely to participate in household chores – reported in Yahoo too.

A survey was conducted on 29 countries to see time devoted to do unpaid work. Unpaid work  here is defined as the production of goods and services not sold on the market such as cooking, gardening and cleaning In simplicity, work done voluntarily without any form of money or salary.

The survey showed men spend 3.5 hours a day on unpaid work whilst women spent 2.5 hours more a day doing household chores than men.

Asian men, especially Indians, Japanese and Koreans spend the least amount of time - less than an hour a day - doing unpaid work. On the other hand, American men, spend around three hours a day doing household chores apart from their regular work.

Countries with high levels of female paid employment had a more equal gender division of total working time. Norway, well known for strong gender equality policies, had the lowest female unpaid working time.

Korean women ranked eighth for the amount of time spent on unpaid work out of the 29 surveyed countries. In contrast, Korean men were placed last among the surveyed countries for their participation in unpaid work. They spent only 50 minutes a day on average compared to almost 200 minutes a day spent by their female counter parts.

Other unpaid work such as child care was low in Korea, Belgium and Hungary. Total time devoted to child care occupied less than one hour per day, the lowest among all surveyed  countries whereas Anglo countries ranked the highest.

Parents spent on average 4.1 hours with their children. Gender differences were apparent in primary child care as well with fathers spending 42 minutes whereas mothers spent an hour and 40 minutes on average with their children.
The study said, unpaid work not only contributes to household consumption but also to future well-being and to community well-being.

In the worldwide league of kindness, Koreans ranked below average.. In other words Koreans ain’t kind.

On the pro and anti social index - Korea ranked 21^st  followed by Mexico, France and Japan. Japan came 28th at 26 percent.

Koreans also showed low levels of anti-social behaviour along with Israelites, Japanese and the Polish.

About 60 percent of people in the U.S. and Ireland ranking first and second in the index have in sometime helped someone in distress followed by Australia, New Zealand and the U.K.

The report concluded those in higher income countries are likely to help others as northern European countries showed a high percentage for pro-social behaviour.


On a personal note – all Asian men cannot be equated to Koreans. I for one spend more then 2.5 hours daily on household chores as compared to other Asian men counterparts.

So, the underlining gist of this survey is – men see the kitchen as a women’s domain. This in part and parcel contributes as to why men spent fewer hours indulging in household chores..

I rest.