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Home and Garden on Female First
According to a new study by domestic appliance repair company Glotech.co.uk, Brits spend 62 hours making breakfast (2.5 days), 94 hours making lunch (3.9 days), an incredible 213 hours making dinner (8.8 days) and an additional 8 hours preparing snacks throughout the year.
The research also uncovered that people in Britain spend around 160 hours cleaning (6.6 days) and 31 hours vacuuming (1.2 days) every year. However, despite the expansion of gender roles since the 80s, and more and more women working 40 hours a week, the survey shows that a huge gender divide still exists, especially when it comes to housework.
They survey shows that women still do the majority of the cleaning, with females spending 246.71 minutes (4.1 hours) every week cleaning their household. This is over double the amount of time spent by their male counterparts, who clocked up 117.7 minutes (1.9 hours) conducting chores every week, leaving women to do 129.1 hours more cleaning every year.
Commenting on the findings, Dr Heather Brown, a social scientist from the University of Sheffield, said "In our own research we found that if women work the same hours as their male counterparts and then have to do the housework their emotional well-being really suffers. We think the reason that women still do more housework is the lasting power of social norms. I've got one child and another on the way so I know first-hand the pressures of juggling a career and housework."
In terms of geographical location, the research shows that people in Aberdeen spend the most time making food each week, spending 301.6 minutes (5 hours) in the kitchen. People surveyed in Wrexham were found to spend the most time cleaning every week, clocking up an impressive 203.8 minutes (3.3 hours) every week.
On the opposite end, it was revealed that Plymouth residents spend the least amount of time cleaning every week, spending 111.7 minutes (1.8 hours), almost half of the time spent by those in Wrexham. Those living in Portsmouth make the most cups of tea or coffee, totalling at 4.3 cups every day.
Mikael Anderson, Business Development Manager at Glotech, commented "With Brits spending so much time cooking and cleaning each week it puts a lot of pressure on their appliances. This makes it ever more important to carefully maintain their appliances such as washing machines and ovens, to reduce the chance of these breaking down."