Men around the world are eager to increase their caring responsibilities at home, but ingrained social expectations and a lack of support are discouraging them from doing so, according to a new report.
Between 70% and 90% of men across 16 of the 17 surveyed countries said they felt equally responsible for care work as their partner, but unequal pay and inadequate government policies mean women still perform up to seven times more unpaid care work in some countries, according to the State of the World’s Fathers report.
India was the only exception of the countries surveyed, where just 25% of men feel as responsible as their partner when it comes to unpaid care work.
“Our findings show what we already suspected: men like to care, men want to care,” said Taveeshi Gupta, the director of research, evaluation and learning at the US-based NGO Equimundo, which published the report on Tuesday. “There is a high degree of desire to be involved in a variety of care tasks, for example childcare. While women are doing more hours of care in all 17 countries we surveyed – men are now self-reporting more hours of care than before.”
The report surveyed nearly 12,000 men, women and gender-diverse people in countries including Colombia, Rwanda, South Africa, Australia, Ireland, China and the US. It found that, globally, men spend only 19% of their non-leisure time on unpaid work compared to 55% for women.
According to the report, men who wish to increase their domestic workloads are held back by social structures not designed to accommodate male caregivers.
“On average, men’s salaries around the world are a fifth higher than women’s,” said Gary Barker, the CEO of Equimundo. “Many household’s will make the decision that the man’s paid work brings more into the household.”
One of the key policies the report recommends is non-transferable and equal parental leave for both parents.
“We don’t want to see women’s leave reduced, instead we want men’s leave to be extended,” Barker said. “In countries where parental leave is transferable – where either parent can claim it – men never claim the same amount of leave as women.”
Although 85% of fathers surveyed said that taking paid care leave will benefit their partners and their children, many reported obstacles in the workplace and society.
Of the fathers and mothers surveyed who did not claim all the parental leave on offer to them, 40% said it was due to the fear of losing their jobs, 36% cited unsupportive managers and 18% said they were worried about judgment from friends and family.
“We need days offered to men to equal those offered to women,” Barke said. “But we also need the mechanisms to promote it, to show men that they won’t face repercussions for claiming it because all their bosses and managers are also going on leave.”
More than 80% of those surveyed believe boys should be taught how to do household chores and care work during childhood.