It’s been dubbed the death of the housewife. Research has revealed that a mere 8% of women now say their main role in life is “family care”.
That figure has fallen from 15% just over a decade ago. As the results from the Future Foundation reveal, the employment rate for women aged 25 to 54 is up to 87%.
As a result of this, the hours spent by women doing housework, including cooking, has fallen steadily over the past decade. The time spent by men doing domestic chores has, despite what men might think, stayed the same.
Women don’t want to clean, cook and tidy – and in fact most don’t believe they are good at it. They would prefer to spend their free time socialising.
All this has fuelled a growth in the market for paid-for domestic help – and not just among the well-off. There has been an increase in spending on cleaners, child-minders and gardeners right across the social spectrum and age groups, with the under 35s and over 55s most likely to pay for outside help.
The trend looks likely to continue, with a large proportion of those not already engaging domestic help saying they would like to. The survey revealed that 15% pay for childcare and another 15% would like to. Likewise, 10% pay for a cleaner and another 20% would like to.
These changes and the growing importance of women in eating-out decision making should not surprise many in the restaurant and casual dining sector. Making it easy to eat-out for those not wanting to cook has been a big opportunity for some time.
Coffee shop brands like Caffe Nero and Starbucks have also been major beneficiaries. Allegra, the research organisation, found that dwell-time in coffee shops has increased with 45% of people staying more than 30 minutes against 38% in 2003. Women in particular are driving demand, it says, seeing coffee shops as an alternative meeting place to pubs and bars.
So what of pubs and bars? There is evidence that much of the sector is still too male-orientated and losing its popularity by not going out of its way to win an increased female clientele.
The smoking ban is an opportunity to change the emphasis. We are all familiar with female-friendly bars, but perhaps being “friendly” isn’t enough any more? Being fully female-focused is the only option.
Recent research from the USA suggests that men believe they have a roughly equal say with their partner in deciding where to eat-out. In contrast, 86% of women are sure they make the decision for both them and their other-half.
No matter what men think, women know they wear the trousers these days and have the freedom to exert that power – and everyone better learn that quickly.
Peter Martin is co-creator of the M&C Report and founder of Peach Factory.
