How much time do Americans spend per week on housework compared to
previous decades?  Specifically, the claim has been made that
labor-saving devices (like laundry machines) just lead to higher
standards and not to a decrease of time spent on housework.  I would
like to know if this is true.

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Request for Question Clarification by bobbie7-ga on 29 Aug 2006 19:10 PDT

Erspertus-ga,

Click on the file Housework Hours.JPG and then select original size.
http://esnips.com/web/bobbieseven-GoogleAnswers

Is this the kind of information you require?

Thanks, Bobbie7

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Clarification of Question by erspertus-ga on 29 Aug 2006 22:33 PDT

Yes, that's exactly the type of information I want.  I'd need to know
the sources of the data, of course.

Hello again Erspertus,

Thank you for accepting my findings as the official answer to your question.

The source of the information:

A Century of Work and Leisure
http://www.econ.ucsd.edu/~vramey/research/Historical_Hours.pdf
University of California, San Diego
National Bureau of Economic Research
Valerie A. Ramey
University of North Carolina
Neville Francis
May 2006


Figure 10
Average Weekly Hours of Housework
(Page 45) 

See also

Figure 9. 
Estimates of Housework by Employment & Sex Category
(ages 18-64)
(Page 44) 

Figure 8. Estimates of Hours of Housework per Week
by Housewives and All Non-employed Women Ages 18-64
(Page 44) 


Search terms used:
Housework hours per week 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980


I hope the information provided is helpful!

Best regards,
Bobbie7

Provided exactly what I was looking for quickly, making sure they
understood my question correctly.

This paper may be of interest to you:

http://rcer.econ.rochester.edu/RCERPAPERS/rcer_506.pdf