Young women, men seek equal roles at work, home
By Maanvi Singh, NPR
Young women these days are encouraged to lean in, to want and have it all. And national polls show the idea that a woman’s place is in the home has been losing traction among young people since the 1960s.
Given the option, the majority of young men and women say they would prefer to share both work and domestic duties equally with their spouses, according to a study published in the February issue of the American Sociological Review.
More than 65 percent of first marriages today are between couples already living together. For millennials, cohabitation is almost a rite of passage.
So how come women are still under more pressure to leave work or switch to part time when they have kids, and still do more of the housework?
“Our work shows that most people want to have more egalitarian relationships, says Sarah Thébaud, a sociologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who co-authored the study. “But they may fall back on to traditional gender roles when they realize that egalitarianism is hard to achieve in the current workplace environment.”