HOUSEWORK - it's a sensitive issue, the target of much debate. The latest survey on the subject reveals that while both sexes are sharing the burden of many chores, it will be 15 years before household tasks are shared equally.
Cause for concern? Yes, of course it is. Particularly when you hark back to days gone by. Take this extract from a home economic textbook, published in the supposedly liberating 1960s.
Plonked on my desk this week, it contains tips on how to be a good wife. To highlight just how far we females have come since then, I've compared them with my own wifely efforts in the year 2000.
1960s: Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal ready in time for his return from work. This is a way of letting him know that you have been thinking about him.
2000: On the days when I don't work, I do plan ahead - by making sure that my husband has all the necessary ingredients to rustle up a tasty meal for me the minute he arrives home from the office. I let him know I have been thinking about him by ringing him and lecturing him for not putting the milk back in the fridge before he left that morning, not feeding the cat, not washing up, and whatever other vital tasks he has overlooked.
1960s: Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you will be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your make-up, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people. Be a little gay and interesting for him.
2000: When my husband arrives home from work I barely look human and he views me as such. If I put a ribbon in my hair, I'd look like Bette Davis in Whatever Happened To Baby Jane and he would really think I'd flipped.
1960s: Clear away the clutter. Make one last trip through the house just before your husband arrives. Gather up books, toys, papers etc. During colder months, prepare and light a fire for him to unwind by. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order.
2000: Impossible - I'd need to take a gap-year to make that sort of trip and have any sort of impact. My husband leaves a haven of rest and order to come home to mayhem and madness.
1960s: Never complain if he comes home late or goes out to dinner, or other places of entertainment, without you. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure and his very real need to be at home and relax.
2000: There are certain rules in our house, and if my husband breaks them he is disciplined as follows... Late home, but before 8pm - ticked off. After 8pm - severe ticking off. After 9pm - screamed at and ignore for an hour. After 10pm - crockery thrown and ignored for two days. After 11pm - suitcase packed in hall and ignored for a month. After midnight: The consequences are too disturbing to print in a family newspaper.
1960s: Speak in a low, soothing and pleasant voice. Don't ask questions about his actions or question his judgement or integrity. Remember he is master of the house.
2000: The only exchanges I have with my husband (uttered in an owl-like screech at 1,000,000 decibels) are: "What are you doing?" "Why are you doing it?" and "Are you mad?"
So I'm worried by this survey, by the Abbey National bank.
In the past 30 years we women have come a long way. It's terrible to think we've only got another 15 years before we have to muck in and do the same amount of work around the house as the men.
Such a downward slide means that in another decade we'll be back to pouring them a home-coming sherry and warming their slippers by the fire.
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