Men could be doing equal share of housework by 2050

Cleaning, cooking and caring for children are often viewed as feminine work while masculine roles include gardening and fixing the car.

Now, a new study has suggested that if current trends continue, women will probably have to wait until 2050 before men could start doing an equal share of the household chores and childcare.

Oxford University staff studied 348,000 housework diaries of 20 to 59-year-olds from 16 countries, including Australia, over 40 years and concluded that we are in the middle of a 70 to 80-year trend towards equity in housework.

The report found "substantial and persistent obstacles" to equity between the sexes when it came to housework. Barriers include views about whether certain chores were men's or women's work.

"Despite equality in educational access and legal requirements for equality in the workplace, women still take a primary role in domestic work," The Courier Mail quoted Oxford University's Professor Jonathan Gershuny as saying.

Women's time on chores declined from 360 minutes a day in the 1960s to 280 minutes in the early 2000s. Men went from 90 minutes a day in the '60s to 148 minutes a day now.

The report has been published in the US journal Sociology.