How far have we come?
Doing it all
While women's working patterns have changed dramatically over the past 30 years, men's contribution to childcare and household tasks has changed very little. In the mid-1970s men performed less than a quarter of all domestic work and less than 10% of routine domestic work. A study for the Co-op in 1999 showed that, four out of five women with families still did all or most of the housework. Even when both partners have full time jobs, the woman does most of the housework in seven out of ten cases. The Henley Centre has calculated that, this double shift means that men have on average 14 hours more leisure time a week than women.
Women, who never knew a world of work before the Sex Discrimination and Equal Pay Acts, have a lot to thank their mothers' generation for. Their campaigning meant that we simply do not have to deal with many of the attitudes they faced. But the best tribute we can pay them is to continue to campaign, not only to close the pay gap and finally shatter the glass ceiling, but for equality at home; without which, far from having it all, we will continue to be doing it all.
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