U.S. women still do most cooking, food shopping, survey shows

Sept. 25 (UPI) -- As contemporary American couples split household chores more than their traditional counterparts, women still do the majority of the cooking and grocery shopping, a new study says.

Pew Research Center said in a survey Tuesday 80 percent of women said they do the majority of meal preparations and the household's primary grocery shopping. Seventy-one percent of respondents said they primarily do both chores. About a fifth of men said they do the cooking and shopping. and 11 percent said they primarily do both.

The survey posed the question to U.S. households that have at least one child under the age of 18.

The Pew survey said men are more likely to say the tasks are divided equally.

The study indicates mothers spend an average of 68 minutes per day on meal preparation, compared to 23 minutes for fathers.

Over the past 50 years, Pew observed, American women have spent more time doing paid work and men have undertaken more home obligations. U.S. women, though, spend fewer hours working than men.

The Pew analysis is based on data from the Eating and Health Module of the American Time Use Survey, sponsored by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS survey produces a nationally representative sample of respondents, drawn from the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey.