Reporting Housework

 Women report doing more housework when being interviewed by a woman. Men are not affected by the gender of the interviewer.

When studying time spent on housework, most evaluations rely on retrospective questionnaire responses rather than on diary-based data. There remains, however, discussion about how reliable such retrospective time-use data are. For example, Kan (2008) finds systematic differences between questionnaire and diary data on housework hours which vary by gender and other characteristics of the respondents. 

Yeah, I'll bet that's true.  Diary versus questionnaire "finds systematic differences" in just about everything. Not that the diary can't be shaded as well, but we tend to put on the shine more for questionnaires. Are women feeling guilty in front of other women, claiming more dusting than they really do? If we go back and look at previous studies, can we tell?  Wanting to measure something accurately and objectively doesn't mean you are succeeding. 

There is no standard definition for what constitutes housework. Does gardening count? When does beautifying shift over into hobby? Do driving errands count? Parent-teacher conferences? It is one of those elastic categories that easily lends itself to taking resentful positions for what is included. I imagine the items that spring to mind first do indeed fall to females more often, likely unfairly: laundry, cleaning, cooking, dishes. Gratitude, or lack thereof, figures prominently in folks' feelings about the matter.