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Australian Institute of Family Studies: Extracts from 'How Families Spend Their Time'

Social, economic and technological change has altered the way in which families spend time together. Important changes include increases in maternal employment, part-time employment and the number of people living alone. There have also been higher levels of geographic mobility, lower fertility rates and the development of affordable communication technology such as the mobile phone, email and the internet.

To support the 2007 National Families Week, the Australian Institute of Family Studies has prepared this Facts Sheet about the time that families spend together. The aim of the 2007 National Families Week is to encourage families to take the time to do things together that will improve their physical and emotional wellbeing.

The statistics presented in this Facts Sheet are derived from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, the Growing Up in Australia: Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) and the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1997 Time Use Survey.

Family time and life cycle stage

Figure 1: Time-use, life cycle stage, 2004

How time is spent varies greatly according to the stage of the lifecycle. Figure 1 shows the amount of time spent over a week in paid employment, doing household work, parenting and playing with children, for men and women in a number of different types of families. Categories reported in these analyses were those who are childless and aged less than 50 years, those with resident children aged less than 5 years, those with resident children aged 5-14 years and those who have children aged over 15 years. On average:

Childless women aged less than 50 spend 31 hours in paid employment and 9 hours doing housework
Mothers spend much less time in paid employment than childless women
Mothers with a pre-school aged child are in paid employment for 11 hours and those with a child aged 5-14 years do 20 hours paid employment
Mothers spend far more time doing housework than childless women. Mothers with a child under 5 spend 23 hours a week doing housework and those with a youngest child 5-14 years old spend 20 hours a week
Mothers with a child under 5 spend a very significant amount of time parenting and playing with children (38 hours a week). Those with a youngest child 5-14 years old spend 16 hours parenting
Childless men aged less than 50 spend over 37 hours a week in paid employment and 6 hours doing housework
Fathers with a child under five spend 43 hours in paid employment, 6 hours doing housework and 16 hours parenting and playing with children
Time use patterns of parents of older children are markedly different. This in part reflects the age of these parents

Australian Bureau of Statistics - Extracts from 'How we Spend our Day'

Domestic activities:
In 1997, 90% of women and 63% of men spent time on housework such as cooking, laundry and cleaning. For those who undertook these activities, women spent two and a half hours (154 minutes) per day, and men spent 1 hour (62 minutes) per day.

A greater proportion of women (80%) than men (49%) prepared food. Of those people who undertook this activity, women spent, on a average day, just over one hour (65 minutes) preparing food compared with 37 minutes for men.

A greater proportion of women (52%) than men (13%) spent time on laundry activities like washing and ironing. Men and women doing laundry tasks spent a similar time washing and drying clothes. Women who ironed spent almost double the amount of time ironing (47 minutes per day) as men (27 minutes per day).

A much greater proportion of women (63%) than men (21%) spent time on other housework. For those who undertook these activities, men and women each spent a similar amount of time on day-to-day housework, such as vacuuming, dusting and cleaning the bathroom (around 30 minutes per day). Women spent longer than men on occasional 'dry' housework like rearranging furniture, hanging curtains and cleaning cobwebs, whereas men spent longer on occasional 'wet' housework such as cleaning windows, cleaning carpets and polishing silver.

Work:
Fathers with dependent children who worked full-time in paid employment, spent 68 hours and 40 minutes per week on total work - of which 29% was unpaid work. Mothers with dependants who worked full-time in paid employment, spent longer: 70 hours and 35 minutes per week on total work - 50% in unpaid work; while mothers who worked part-time in paid employment spent a little less: 65 hours and 40 minutes per week on total work - 72% in unpaid work. Mothers with dependants who were not in paid employment spent 59 hours per week in unpaid work.

Family time and life cycle stage

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