A new report spreading across the Internet seems designed to make women feel as though they’re being mistreated. And as with nearly all reports of this nature, some of the details are being left out.
Take this NBC News article on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2016, which boasts that “Women Work 39 Days More Than Men Per Year.” Nowhere in the article does NBC acknowledge that the extra work women are doing is household chores.
Instead, the article gives the impression that women are staying at the office longer but being paid less (because the report and news articles about it continue to spread the myth of the gender “wage gap” without explaining in detail that the gap is due largely to choices many women make and not discrimination). In reality, women are working 50 minutes more a day because of unpaid housework.
The BBC and others at least acknowledge this and point out that men do 34 percent more paid work than women on average. That’s confirmed in other reports. The Bureau of Labor Statistics finds year after year that men report working more paid hours a week than women.
It’s also confirmed in a new Gallup report that builds on the BLS estimates. Gallup found that 47 percent of men report working more than 40 hours a week, while just 30 percent of women say the same. Gallup is quick to note, however, that this doesn’t mean men work harder than women.
Gallup explains that some employers value time in the office over actual work performance, so there might be a perception problem for any employee who is in the office for fewer hours than others (and that tends to be female employees).
“Too often, managers rate and reward employees on the basis of their own perceptions and misguided notions of intensity. They believe that the people who are in the office 50 hours a week are better performers or harder workers than those who are in the office 40 hours a week,” Gallup’s Jane Miller and Amy Adkins wrote.
“In reality, 40-hour-a-week employees may be working with greater intensity, performance and outcomes than their 50-hour-a-week counterparts. Yet, the 40-hour-a-week employees may be perceived as not working as hard because they are not putting in enough face time.”
Now, obviously I believe men and women should better split household chores and child care, but that’s something partners can decide between themselves.
But it’s disingenuous to leave out or downplay the fact that women only appear to work more hours because they spend more time on housework.
One last thing to note about the World Economic Forum report: It looks at 144 countries, so using global average data to condemn the U.S. is unwise, though it’s certainly being done.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
