Title: SHARING OF DOMESTIC RESPONSIBILITIES
Author: chris swart
Company: MTA Szociológiai Kutatóintézet

Judit Acsády – Mária Neményi: 
Sharing of Domestic Responsibilities – The Hungarian Case

Even though the sharing of domestic responsibilities has been a marginal issue in the equal opportunities discourse for a long time, it is very significant for several reasons. The division of labour marked traditionally different sets of occupations in separate social spaces for women and men. Thus the public and private world became distinguished and while men’s activities became defined as concerning the public, women’s responsibilities became primarily linked to the domestic sphere.  Yet, women’s integration into the paid labour and the public sphere necessarily raises the question of the share of domestic responsibilities. Once societies are determined to guarantee equal opportunities for women and men at the level of policy, the competences of earlier isolated spheres are to be analysed and rethought so that gender roles could be redefined according to the new social experiences. 

Historical background

Women, and men’ responsibilities and social roles in Hungary recently are formulated in the context of the post-soviet societies. Before having a look at the recent situation a short overview of earlier decades will be given from the point of view of gender relations. 

Though the economic modernisation started at the end of the 19^th century, Hungarian society was still mostly an agricultural one by the time of the Second World War and an overwhelming part of the population lived in rural areas. The way of life of the population in the countryside was characterised by the traditional cultural patterns of peasantry, with strictly exclusive gender roles.  Though both men and women had their tasks in the work in the fields, the feeding and taking care of animals and the seasonal occupations (e.g. harvest), yet domestic (household) work and childcare was merely women’s responsibilities and were helped in cases by the elderly children or the grandparents. In the case of middle class and upper class households paid servants and maids performed all domestic work including childrearing. 

Women’s education started to get widespread at the end of the 19^th century, yet Hungarian society did not easily accept the changing patterns of gender and the image of the “new woman” who is educated, has a paid job and is not concerned merely with household duties. The enlightened and progressive thoughts that the early twentieth century political movements represented concerning women’s emancipation and suffrage rights became silenced in the period between the two world wars.  At that time conservative, even feudal values in political thought prevailed including patriarchal, authoritarian patterns and traditional gender roles. 

After 1948 policies about gender relations changed significantly as part of the implementation of the soviet model of the state-socialist regime. Yet, later evaluation of that period shows that women’s emancipation stayed “partial”, meaning that beside the effort of full employment (both for men and women) and a given rate of political representation, women’s social status did not change radically. Hierarchical gender relations prevailed. The soviet type of emancipation excluded the initiatives from “below”, that is banned all civil society activities (including the work of women’s associations) with the exception of those organisations that belonged to and were strictly controlled by the communist party. In this totalitarian system no chance was given to genuine redefinition and reforming of gender roles. Even though certain efforts were made to create the “socialist type” of relationships and families, these expectations rather stayed on the level of propaganda. As far as domestic responsibilities are concerned centrally promoted publications stressed the importance of husbands and fathers taking their part in household duties especially childcare and education. These often stressed moral obligations of men to share the family responsibilities and also gave practical advice on how to arrange everyday duties (shopping, cooking, taking the children to kindergarten and school) when both parents are employed full time and have changing working hours in afternoon and night shifts (that was often the case in the period of economic expansions in the 1960’s). 

Later in the 1970’s and 1980’s the discourse about modernised gender roles and sharing household responsibilities was exchanged by the Hungarian backlash, the “maternity-leave discourse” (Adamik 2000.). That is, after the introduction of three-year maternity leave, women’s primary function as mothers and care-givers became stressed. Emancipation and modernised gender roles started to get criticised and we said to be against the biological determination of women and men. From the late 1960’s on large press campaigns and several publications started to blame women’s emancipation for certain social and demographic problems, like for example, the raising divorce rates and the decrease in childbirth. Women following an “emancipated” pattern and taking their profession seriously were faulted for neglecting their “natural tasks as housewives and mothers” and became negatively stigmatised in the public discourse. Men’s share of domestic responsibilities was mentioned less and less. 
After the transition in 1990 with the introduction of the multi-party political system and the market-oriented economy, the patterns of the emancipation model became considered as part of the state-socialist past. Conservative views concerning gender relations were given large publicity. With Hungary’s joining the European Union the equal opportunities approach in gender relations appeared at the level of government policies. Yet, as these efforts are not backed up with a strong enough local level activities and initiatives the efficacy of these government level endeavours is still dubious.

Demography

The sharing of domestic responsibilities is influenced by several demographic factors. Even though the number of marriages has been decreasing for several decades, the most characteristic form of cohabitation in Hungary is still marriage. The rate of couples living in one household without being married is increasing. Non-marital birth was rather rare in Hungarian society, yet in the last decade its rate grew to one third of all births. Some interpret cohabitation as a pre-marriage state of living together (this form of living became visible in Hungarian society only after the transition of 1990) yet there is not much experience about the future of these relationships for researchers. Yet, the observation is already made that cohabitations and partnership relations proved to be even more breakable than marriages. This adds to the understanding of the emerging number of singles especially in urban areas, among those in their thirties (Spéder 2005). The relationships of this generation are characterised by postponed or rejected family responsibilities and decreasing emotional engagements. Surveys show that the way of life of singles is not a freely chosen one for many young women but more a necessity as they do not find committed partners (Utasi 2004).

As far as fathers’ legal responsibilities are concerned in the case of divorced parents or parents not married or not living in the same household, the custody rights can be implemented only if the father declares his parenthood. The law obliges the divorced father to pay a monthly sum to the mother of his child according to his salary. Yet, it is a common source of conflict among such couples that the father refuses to share the financial and educational responsibilities and does not take care of the children.

Views on gender roles

After the transition a conservative shift took place in the opinion about gender roles. There was a growing acceptance of the view that women’s participation in the labour market is to be reduced especially in the case of mothers with small children. In an opinion poll in 2000 relatively less importance was given to the statement that “In a marriage both wife and husband should have their income” (KSH 1. 18.).

According to an international comparative study Hungarian respondents showed the highest rate (79%) of agreement with the statements that “Although work is important for most women home and children are more important.” Also they showed the highest rate of acceptance of traditional gender roles: 71% agreed with the statement: “It is the husband’s responsibility to earn money to support his family, and the wife’s task is to perform household work” (Pongrácz 2005).

In countries where emancipated approach to sharing work is accepted (e.g. The Netherlands), the majority of respondents believe that a switch in gender roles is normal. In contrast in Hungary any switch in traditional gender roles is rejected. 68% of the respondents in the survey mentioned above agreed with the following statement “It is not good when the husband is at home and is raising the children and the wife is the breadwinner in the family”
Yet, it seems opinions on gender roles tend to reflect more conservative views than what real practice shows. (Tóth 1995). For example the “child and family-oriented dispositions are still very widespread in Hungary compared to the neighbouring countries”. Especially elderly people tend to evaluate marriage more because of the economic safety (Pongrácz- S. Molnár-Dobossy 2001:24).

Also Hungarians accept the statements more that “married couples are happier than others” and “those without children have an empty life”. Women agree more with the statement that the main goal of the marriage is having children. In their self-definition women give the first importance to motherhood (Tóth 2005). Yet, as was shown above, this child- and family centred view is not reflected in the real rate of childbirths which is decreasing. There is a difference between the number of children parents wish for and the number they really have. 

Education has a strong impact on the formulation of views about the traditional share of domestic labour. While half of those having an elementary level of education agrees with the traditional roles, only one tenth of those having higher education, a university degree. Regardless of education women agree less with the traditional share than men. When university students (2000 respondents) were asked, it turned out that women try to balance more between family responsibilities than men when choosing a profession. Those men with sexist attitudes tended to neglect family responsibilities totally and in their stereotypical framework of thinking evaluate the significance of domestic work rather lowly (Lahn Ann 2001).

Share of housework

The involvement of partners and spouses in housework – or in other words, the share men take in the traditional role of women at home – is viewed by many as a key question of equality within the family and the equal chances outside of that. TABLE 1 shows that according to the answers, women in Hungary are still primarily in charge of housework like they are in other East-Central European countries.

TABLE 1.“Who usually does the housework in your home?”
		Me	      My partner	We share       Someone else	    total%
Female  respondents | 71% | 2% | 34% | 2% | 100
Male     respondents | 3% | 69% | 24% | 4% | 100
Source: Pongrácz 2005:80.

The more active participation of men in domestic work would improve not only women’s employment and career opportunities but as has been demonstrated by international trends – would have a positive impact on child-bearing patterns. 

After the system change, women’s labour market position changed radically. Not only their decreasing ratio in paid labour but also their segregated position both horizontally and vertically reinforces this statement. A consequence inherent in the less favourable position occupied by women in the employment structure is that women have less income compared to men, and as a result, lower unemployment benefits, sick pay, and old age pensions. At the same time, their household work became more demanding than that of men. It is understandable that women rather avoid the labour market and stay at home – and this decision is maintained by a widespread conservative ideology about gender roles. Experts argue that men earn about 29% more in the workplace than women, but women contribute by 172% more to the household budget, if we take into consideration the time and work expended both at work and at home. Women compensate their lower income with more household activities. 

In dual earner households working time of women in gainful job is 3-10% shorter than that of men, but on the other hand, time devoted to household activities by women is about 200% more than men’s. This means that wives work 30% more than their husbands (Frey 2001).

According to Hungarian data of the project “Households, Work and Flexibility” (Sik – Nagy 2001), a large proportion of households’ domestic chores are done by members of the household since they rarely buy these services from the market or ask for help from outside the family. In the questionnaire-based survey, nine household chores were analysed in two-parent families: 1) repairing and maintaining household appliances, 2) cooking, 3) cleaning, 4) washing, 5) daily shopping, 6) taking care of the children, 7) taking care of the sick children, 8) taking care of a sick relative or friend, 9) gardening. The possible answers were the following: female or male member of the family, shared between family members, and “other” (relatives, or paid/market services). The distribution of the answers is shown in TABLE 2.

TABLE 2. Who does the following chores in your household? – Distribution of valid answers in two-parent families (N=851)

| Men | Women | Sharing between each other | Outside help
Repair, household maintenance | 31 | 21 | 1 | 47
Gardening | 33 | 23 | 34 | 10
Looking =after ill relative | 22 | 32 | 22 | 24
Looking after children | 29 | 34 | 27 | 10
Looking after ill children | 31 | 38 | 20 | 11
Shopping | 33 | 44 | 23 | 0
Cleaning | 36 | 47 | 17 | 0
Washing | 40 | 52 | 8 | 0
Cooking | 38 | 53 | 8 | 1

As we can see, in two-parent families it is most often women who take over the household tasks, with only two exceptions: gardening, and repairing and maintaining. These kinds of tasks are traditionally considered as men’s duties. On the other hand, female members of the family are overrepresented in the so-called “feminine” tasks, i.e. cooking, washing and cleaning. Looking after children (or ill children) seems to be considered a common responsibility: more than a quarter of the sample claimed that they share it between them.

Data also shows that while participation in domestic labour increases with age, sharing domestic duties is more characteristic for younger couples, especially for married couples. According to the opinion of single respondents, women do on average twice as many tasks as men in their families. Analysing the distribution of household tasks according to family structure we can observe that the age of children has a significant effect on participation in domestic duties. Families with children under 18 do more work at home and the ratio of shared duties is also above the average level. As far as family income is concerned, in households with low incomes women do more domestic chores compared to women in richer families. 

Some qualitative data also supports the statement that among younger, more educated couples the sharing of the household tasks is more common. In an interview-based research project on changing families and family policies (Neményi – Takács 2005), according to a middle-aged respondent at the beginning of the marriage couples are more willing to do housework together, while later it is replaced with the traditional way of sharing tasks. Another respondent argues that women are overexploited with the double burden, working at paid work and also at home: women’s life is like a race against time. The so-called women’s work is not really feminine, but it is considered to be done by women in our society, which is still a patriarchal one. Sharing household tasks was understood by the majority of our respondents within the framework of the nuclear family, participation of the older generations occurred only in taking care of young children in the family. 

Unbalanced time use

In accordance with traditional patterns in Hungary even those couples living together (either married or in other forms of cohabitation) do not fairly share domestic responsibilities. Men spend more time on paid work than women, while women perform most of the household and childcare work even if they are employed for the same number of hours as their partners. This pattern is accepted even in the younger generation. (Pongrácz – S. Molnár – Dobossy 2001:30).

According to the latest European time-use survey it is Hungarian women who spend the greatest amount of time on household and childcare (EUROSTAT 2004), working almost three times more at home than their spouses.

A comparison, based on four subsequent time-balance research projects carried out by the Hungarian Central Statistical Office in 1977, 1986, 1993 and 2000, analysed the structure of working time, and the size and the change of male or female dominance within each working activities (Falussy 2002). They distinguish two main sets of time consuming activities: gainful-productive and self-supporting household activities. While the first set of activities is done for 60% by men and 40% by women, the distribution of the second set is 26/74%. It is interesting that there is no difference in these ratios since the first survey, although the time devoted to gainful or self-supporting activities has changed significantly as time has passed. According to the time-use data available, the amount of time spent by employed men on paid and productive work has decreased slightly, while in the case of employed women it has grown to some extent in the past 15 years – most of the changes took place between 1986 and 1993 (Bukodi 2006). The comparison of the population by living condition, education, age, and economic activity shows that the biggest differences can be found within the dimension of economic activity and age-group. The highest working time value among women characterises young mothers staying at home with small children on child-care allowance, and the peak of working time values can be found among active men within the age-group 30-39. Beside economic activity, the use of time is related to the family’s living arrangement, and to the number of children in the family. Time-balance surveys show that mainly women’s use of time is differentiating according to the changes of life-cycle. Women’s working hours increase consistently from single women through young wives to being mothers of two or more children. The ratio of household duties within the time devoted to work increases evenly while ratio of gainful work is decreasing. 

Sociologists argue that among the reasons of the high divorce rate in Hungary domestic conflicts related to sharing household responsibilities play an important role (Bukodi 2006). Under the dominant and traditional pattern, men spend more time on paid work than women, while women perform most of the household and childcare work. In an average day in 2000 men spent 189 minutes and women 122 minutes on some form of paid work; at the same time, though, men spent on average 161 minutes and women almost 300 minutes on activities within the family (See TABLE 3.). In comparison with other European countries, it is Hungarian women who spend the greatest amount of time on housework and childcare. Of course, economic activity and family structure influence these patterns fundamentally. Men spend the most time on paid work if they have children, while women work most if they are childless, and women with small children spend the most time on housework.

TABLE 3. Time spent on household activities and on paid work among women and men in an average day, by life cycle, in 2000 (minutes)

Life cycle | Housework and childcare | Paid work
| Entire population | Employed | Entire population | Employed
| women | Men | women | Men | women | men | women | men
Single, with no children | 201,8 | 108,7 | 151,7 | 88,2 | 97,4 | 165,3 | 290,4 | 321,4
Single, with children | 310,5 | - | 250,9 | | 204,5 | - | 283,2 | -
Couples with no children | 320,5 | 189,9 | 246,1 | 136,4 | 114,7 | 141,4 | 282,5 | 305,1
Couples with children aged 0-6 | 452,9 | 191,3 | 35,2 | 174,7 | 91,1 | 286,5 | 217,8 | 323,3
Couples with children aged 7-17 | 323,9 | 164,3 | 287,9 | 142,9 | 215,3 | 290,8 | 271,3 | 337,6
Average | 297,6 | 160,8 | 233,5 | 129,3 | 122,4 | 189,0 | 275,4 | 320,0

Source: HCSO Time-Use Survey 1999/2000

NGO activities

While research projects are not sensitive enough to gender equality and there are only a few projects aiming to explain the reasons and both social and psychosocial factors of surviving traditional family forms and family roles despite of women’s participation in the labour market, there are civil organisations and initiatives, trying to achieve better reconciliation of family life and work both for men and women. They also want to raise consciousness within society. The Foundation for the Women in Hungary (MONA), for example, takes part in an international project “Breaking Patterns – New role models for men in leadership”. It sets a series of measures in the field of leadership education for men and women in order to learn from successful role models to influence public opinion and perception, and so to change the existing pattern assigning family care and the responsibility of reconciling family and work to women only; to sensitise men in future leading positions (like executive managers, directors, etc.) to reconciliation of responsibilities; to implement a training module about reconciliation of family and work in the training system for leadership, especially in the training for men to get a leading position. The project points out and highlights positive examples of men in leading positions who can be role models for successful reconciliation of family and work. 

The Ministry of Employment and Labour is inviting workplaces to compete for the “Family friendly workplace” title for the 6^th time. This initiative aims to promote equality at the workplace, encourage employers to take responsibility in reconciliation of work and family duties of their employees. Behind this aim we can recognise the double effort toward raising the level of employment and maintaining demographic balance, increasing the procreativity of working parents. They argue that both enterprise and employees have an interest in a family friendly environment at the workplace not only in favour of families but also from the point of view of productivity and competitiveness.

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