• DIY Daves are becoming DIY Delilahs and stay-home Sandras are becoming stay-home Steves, as women and men on course to swap traditional home roles
• If the trend continues, men and women will have swapped common roles completely by 2068
• Ironing and unloading the dishwasher has already switched, but men will eschew the duster for another 52 years
   

Women and men will have swapped traditional roles around the home completely by 2068 according to a new report by Privilege Home Insurance, which examined the home life of 2,000 people in the UK.

By comparing how often different generations perform certain chores, like cooking, vacuuming and cleaning, researchers have identified a trend line showing that, whilst women currently perform traditional roles most often, the gap is narrowing to the point where men and women will eventually switch.

Of the main chores, clothes washing is set to shift first, with men taking over this role in nine years’ time. Cleaning the bathroom will come next – in 16 years – and cooking will follow after that, seeing men take to the chopping board more often than their partners in 36 years’ time.

Dusting will be last to fall, with men avoiding dusters for another 52 years.

On the other hand, ironing has actually already switched along with loading and unloading the dishwasher.

As for jobs that men do the most – like washing the car, taking the bins out and gardening – there is no sign of the switch going the other way any time soon.

When will men take over the chores?

Source: Privilege Home Insurance

Currently, men are cooking dinner for their wives and girlfriends six times a month, compared to girls who cook dinner 10 times a month on average. Men pick up the food shopping five times a month, compared to women’s six and men clean four times a month, compared to seven times a month for women.

Chores that men are least keen on are clothes washing and cleaning the bathroom, with women doing this more than twice as much as their partners each month. Women are currently most fussy about washing the car, with men doing it almost twice as much as them.

Of the main household chores below, women still do 79 per cent of them more often than men.

Current Home Roles

Source: Privilege Home Insurance

DIY is another area of home life that was examined for the report, with data showing that this could be one area where the girls are starting to encroach on traditional ‘boy’ territory. When it comes to reaching for the tool box, one in six women (15 per cent on average) are now more likely to do so than their partners. As for examining individual tasks, one in three women (31 per cent) are more likely to do the painting than their partner and one in five (20 per cent) are the designated flat pack furniture assembler in their household.  

There are also ‘no go’ zones for both sexes however with ‘classic’ DIY tasks like putting up a fence or wallpapering seemingly a no man’s land, with neither girls nor boys willing to take on the task and the equivalent of over 1.3 million Brits saying they will be using a DIY professional this bank holiday to avoid any mishaps.

When it comes to kids, nearly one in ten (seven per cent) dads said they were the one to stay at home to look after their new-born whilst mum went back to work. Dads also do the school run almost as many times as women do dropping off or picking their kids up an average 6 times a month compared to women’s 8.

Dan Simson, head of Privilege home insurance said: “Our research indicates that by 2068 ‘DIY Daves’ will actually be ‘DIY Delilahs’, with men having taken charge of traditional ‘female’ roles around the home, like cooking dinner and doing the ironing.

“Yet DIY seems to be a bit of a no-man’s land, with over 1.3 million people saying they will use a professional this bank holiday instead of tackling the job themselves.

“Those who do intend to dust off their DIY to do list this and open up their tool box this weekend, however, should remember to check their insurance policies to make sure they are covered for accidental damage.”
 

ENDS
 

For more information, please contact: Fran Langdon or Laura Nugent at Van Communications:

[email protected] / [email protected] / 020 3179 0720

Notes to editors:

Opinium carried out online research amongst 2,002 adults aged 18+ from the 15th to 18th March 2016.

Calculated by comparing the frequency of doing clothes washing, cleaning the bathroom, cooking, dusting and ironing between men and women over different age groups and applying a trend line to estimate when the frequencies will switch. Our estimate points to all of those chores switching by 2068 for couples aged 18.

The question asked about Easter Bank Holiday and we are assuming similar figures for the upcoming bank holiday
 

Privilege

Privilege Insurance specialises in car insurance for safe drivers. It also offers home insurance and breakdown cover by phone or on-line.

Privilege general insurance policies are underwritten by U K Insurance Limited, Registered office: The Wharf, Neville Street, Leeds LS1 4AZ. Registered in England and Wales No 1179980. U K Insurance Limited is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority.

Privilege and U K Insurance Limited are both part of Direct Line Insurance Group plc.   

Customers can find out more about Privilege’s products or get a quote by calling 0345 246 0515 or visiting www.privilege.co.uk

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