Big paychecks means less housework for married women



The more money a married woman earns, the less housework she will do regardless of how much her spouse earns, according to a new study.

A researcher at the University of Massachusetts Amherst found that big paychecks equal less cooking and cleaning in a study of 918 women in double-income families.

Married women who made $40,000 or more a year spent nearly one hour less on housework per day than women who earned $10,000 or less, according to the findings based on data from the National Survey of Families and Households.

"Up to this point, people have thought that the important thing was how much money a woman makes compared to her husband. But the only thing that matters is how much money she earns," Sanjiv Gupta, the study's author, said in an interview.

The study, which is published in the Journal of Marriage and Family, showed that for every $7,500 in annual income a married woman earned, she performed one hour less of housework each week.

Gupta confirmed the link between money, domestic work and spousal relationships in a separate study using data on nearly 2,000 couples in the United States and Europe.

The average earnings of American women increased by $6,200 between 1965 and 1995, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. During that time, the amount of time married women spent on weekly chores fell by 14.6 hours.

Since the husband's earnings had no effect on the amount of housework a woman does, the finding suggest women are using their own money to reduce their domestic workloads such as ordering take-out food instead of cooking and hiring cleaners instead of doing it themselves, Gupta said.

一项最新研究发现，已婚女性挣钱越多，她做的家务活越少，而这与她们的丈夫挣多少钱无关。

美国马萨诸塞大学阿姆赫斯特分校的一名研究人员对918名双薪家庭的女性进行了研究，结果发现，薪水越高的女性做的家务活越少，比如做饭和打扫卫生。

研究发现，年收入达到四万美元或以上的已婚女性每天做家务的时间比年收入一万或一万以下的女性少近一个小时。研究结果主要基于美国家庭与住户调查的数据资料。

该研究的负责人桑吉维•古普塔在接受一个访谈时说：“以前人们认为女性与丈夫之间的收入差别最重要，但现在看来，唯一的问题是女性自身的收入。”

该研究结果在《婚姻与家庭》期刊上发表。研究表明，已婚女性的年收入每增加7500美元，每周做家务的时间就会减少一小时。

古普塔根据美国和欧洲近2000对夫妇的相关数据进行了一项独立研究，证实收入、家务及婚姻之间确实存在联系。

据美国人口普查局统计资料，1965年至1995年间，美国女性的平均收入增加了6200美元。而在此期间，已婚女性每周做家务活的时间减少了14.6个小时。

古普塔称，既然丈夫的收入对妻子做多少家务没什么影响，研究结果说明，女性是在用自己挣的钱给自己减轻家务负担，比如订外卖代替自己做饭、雇保洁工代替自己打扫卫生等。

Vocabulary:

double-income family: 双薪家庭

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