Madrid is at the forefront on the issue of sharing household chores in the couple. After condemning a man to pay more than 200,000 euros to his ex-wife, because she had taken care of their home during their marriage, the Spanish government is launching an application to monitor the sharing of tasks within a household.
Announced during a meeting of the United Nations Committee against Discrimination against Women, it will allow each member of the family to indicate the time devoted to each task. “Surveys show that women spend much more time on household chores than men,” said Angela Rodríguez, Secretary of State in Spain’s Ministry of Equality.
Share up mental load
According to a survey by Spain’s National Institute of Statistics, published in December, 45.9% of women surveyed said they did the majority of household chores, compared to just 14.9% of men. The operation of this new app is modeled on that of applications such as Tricount, which allow expenses to be shared between several users.
The application also takes mental load into account. Thus, the purchase of ingredients and the planning of the meal can be noted in the application. “These tasks, this mental load, almost always fall on women, according to the surveys,” said Angela Rodríguez. While the application provokes a debate on social networks, the secretary of state considered that the detractors of this tool were those who are “offended” at the idea of ”having to start taking their part at home”.
