The table compares men and women in terms of the average time spent on various pastimes, while the bar chart illustrates the time allocated to housework. The survey was carried out in the UK in 2008.
Overall, for both genders, while watching TV, videos, and listening to the radio were the most popular leisure activities, cooking and washing dishes were the chores that took up the most time. What is also notable from the chart is that men spent more time on most leisure activities compared to women whereas women dedicated significantly more time to household tasks.
In terms of pastimes, both genders preferred watching TV, videos, and listening to the radio, with men dedicating around 137 minutes daily, about 20 minutes more than women. Men also engaged more in sports, averaging 15 minutes compared to women’s 11 minutes. Conversely, reading was the only activity where women spent more time, albeit slightly, at 19 minutes as opposed to men’s 18 minutes.
Regarding household chores, women spent the majority of their time cooking and washing dishes, averaging 75 minutes daily, more than twice the time men spent. Shopping was the second most time-consuming task for both genders, with women also spending more time than men, with respective figures being approximately 35 minutes and around 25 minutes. A similar pattern was seen in clothes-related chores, where women spent 30 minutes, triple the time men dedicated. Lastly, men spent just under 20 minutes on repairs, double the time women allocated to this task.