Because in any study you have variables and you would need to consider them, of course each task is going to be different in level of difficulty and hours that are spent to complete, a persons physical capability can determine how challenging completing it would be for them. Would an able bodied person complete a task faster than someone with a physical disability? I've worked in Physical Rehab and putting on clothes takes them more effort than I would myself. Male gendered household tasks are often physically challenging for a smaller person, shoveling snow will take me 2-3x as long as a man. The difference in male gendered vs female gendered tasks is that often male tasks are weekend-type, mowing the lawn or taking out the trash and fixing things. Female tasks are daily, cooking, cleaning, child care. Hours spent are not equal. If a man could avoid doing any chores all week and then do 4-6 hours a weekend.

Though the point of the article is that men are doing more but it's considered a gift or a favor, whereas women do these chores because they need to get done. Like with children, you give them chores and they expect a reward. Allowance, tv time, friend time, you use chores and positive rewards to teach them about responsibility. This is something adult men shouldn't expect, they should have already learned about responsibility and their reward is a clean house. I don't do the dishes because it's a favor, so someone else won't have to do them, I don't clean the bathroom and expect any reward other than a clean bathroom, I'm not going to get a pat on the back for vacuuming.

The article was referring to expectations, "at least he got up with the baby in the middle of the night," when the mother had to clean up the fathers mistake. If a mother had made the mistake and the father had cleaned up the baby, it would have been be odd to hear, "at least mom got up with the baby in the middle of the night." Or if a man complains that he does the majority of the household cleaning and a woman does one thing, maybe clears the table and does the dishes once that week, no one says, "at least she helps you out." It isn't that chores are not getting done by men, it's that they are not expected to do them so anything they do is rewarded and the performance in completion is low. They can do a shitty job of it and still get kudos. Half assed attempts are still attempts to help, in fact, it reminds me of when that stupid Paris Hilton book came out and I saw someone reading from it on tv. Her advice was that if someone asks you to do something, do it so badly that they never ask you to do it again. If men are not doing this on purpose, it is still the result. Example, my mother took a Thursday night class and my father watched the children. Every Thursday night for a month one of us ended up in the ER, she quit her class so that she could be home to watch us. He wasn't doing it on purpose, he wouldn't want us to get hurt. He just didn't know that "quiet" meant trouble and thought it meant we were okay.

Imagine that you worked and cleaned your home and took kids to doctors appointments and volunteered at school. It's an expectation and no one notices unless you don't do those things.

Now imagine you worked and took your kids to school and appointments, then performed household duties. Only you don't have to do those things, you can do them or not do them, it's a favor, it's not expected of you and it's "extra credit." You don't even have to do it right, the kids can be late to school, you forgot to ask the doctor all the questions on your list, and you ordered pizza instead of cooking. Half assed attempts are not equal to completing them correctly and they require someone to fix the mistakes, talk to the school about tardiness, call up the doctors office to clarify the answers to their questions, and planning meals that are cheap and healthy.

The thing is that men are changing and helping out more, totally awesome results for starting on gender equality. Though why would we consider it to be "fixed" when there is still some inequality? Pointing these things out is not to say, "fuck you men, you might as well not be doing shit," if your child is expected to clean their room and they shove everything in the closet, you have to get them to do it over again the right way or you miss out on teaching them a lesson. Since men are just starting to clean, they need to be taught how to do it right and with no expectation of rewards. Baby steps. Men are not evil, they are not children, but since helping out and cleaning is new to them they need to work on it more. It's not bad, you would expect this transition to have road blocks. Like Obamacares shitty website and tax fuck ups, they are trying to provide healthcare to everyone and that's noble but to expect transitions to be smooth is complete ignorance to how change naturally occurs. It isn't a "damned if you do, damned if you don't," situation. Starting to help is a positive change, doing it right is the goal.