Working mums do more childcare than dads

Mums around the world spend twice as much time on childcare as dads, according to a new OECD working paper.

Mums around the world spend twice as much time on childcare as dads, according to a new OECD working paper.

The paper, "Cooking, caring and volunteering: unpaid work around the world", shows women spend an average of one hour 40 minutes a day on childcare compared to 42 minutes for dads. If they are working, dads spend around 40 minutes a day looking after their children, compared to 74 minutes for working mums. Dads only spend 10 minutes longer on childcare if they are not working, while women spend 144 minutes.

In Nordic countries, dads spend roughly the same time looking after children whether they are working or not (around 40 minutes). Australian men spend the most time on childcare, whether they are working or not (69 and 105 minutes respectively). The least time spent by working fathers is in South Africa (8 minutes) and Korea (12 minutes).

The paper feeds into a series of reports looking at family policies, rising income inequality and intergenerational solidarity, to be discussed at the 2011 OECD Social Policy Ministerial meeting in Paris on 2 and 3 May.

The OECD will also be releasing a report in April on families, which includes a comparison of OECD countries’ approaches to maternity leave. It will show, for instance, that the US is the only place where women are not legally entitled to paid maternity leave. Women in the UK can take a year off work, of which around 40 weeks are paid, with the total amounting to around 12 weeks of average earnings, while in Austria, France and the Netherlands, women are entitled to 16 weeks, most at full pay.





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