• An app to finally balance the mental load? The Spanish government has developed a programme to control the sharing of domestic tasks within the household.
  • The initiative, presented at a meeting of the UN Committee against Discrimination against Women, aims to highlight the imbalance against women in housework.
  • Have we found the miracle solution to the daily worries of couples? 20 Minutes takes stock with Alice Apostoly, co-founder of the Gender Institute in Geopolitics.

What couple hasn't quarreled because of a badly stretched machine or dishes lying around? Spoiler: none. Toilets to scrub, a meal to cook, the mop to pass ... So many thankless domestic tasks that are often performed by women within the heterosexual couple. Faced with this implacable observation, which always weighs down the mental load a little more, Spain is looking at a solution: a mobile application responsible for restoring balance on household chores. Can this initiative work in France? Can these kinds of tools bridge the gap? Are there biases? 20 Minutes takes stock of the issue with Alice Apostoly, co-founder of the Gender Institute in Geopolitics.

Can the app be available in France?

The concept of Spain, a pioneer in addressing gender inequalities, is simple. "It's an application that will make it possible to count the time that everyone invests in domestic chores," says Angela Rodriguez, Spanish Secretary of State for Equality at the microphone of France Inter. Concretely, the application will work on the same model as Tricount, a program that allows you to share expenses between several people.

The initiative is considered interesting by Alice Apostoly, but it does not appear to her as a miracle solution. "We need an ambitious political agenda to move closer to a fair sharing of labour," she said. Because the gap to be bridged is still deep in France. The INSEE "Time Use" survey has also calculated that "women spend 10h15 more than men on domestic tasks".

A tool capable of reducing gender inequality?

Nearly seven out of ten French people have already stopped talking to each other because of an argument related to household chores, according to a study by TaskRabbit and YouGov (2021). Worse, 2% of respondents even say they have divorced because of it. Faced with this observation, "the value of this application will mainly lie in the data it can highlight. It will be another good source of documentation, which can feed into the advocacy and awareness-raising work that feminist movements are already doing," predicts Alice Apostoly.

The figures illustrate the extent of the gap that needs to be closed to achieve gender equality. In Spain, 45.9% of women surveyed say they take care of most of the household chores, compared to only 14.9% of men, according to a study by the National Institute of Statistics. In France, "women perform two-thirds of domestic tasks," according to INSEE. "It affects their career, their mental health, their daily life, their ability to have hobbies and time to themselves," says our specialist, who insists on one point: in a couple with children, "the disparity of tasks worsens drastically after the arrival of the first born. We need equivalent parental leave policies for both parents, better access to childcare, a reduction in working hours are concrete solutions, the education of children".

Are there any biases in the initiative?

"We all know that person who tells us, 'I'll tidy up the kitchen.' Except that tidying up the kitchen can take twenty minutes, but to be able to do it, someone else had to go buy a sponge, a dishwashing product. This mental load almost always rests on women, that's what the polls say. For Angela Rodriguez, the observation is clear. For the Spanish politician, men will have to play the game so as not to rout the device. "The impact of the device will depend on the good faith of the couples who use it, comments our expert. Many phenomena are documented, including strategic incompetence, or lack of initiative (to circumvent daunting tasks). »

Our dossier on gender equality

Another source of concern: who will fill in the information on the application on a daily basis? Used improperly, the app could result in an additional burden for the woman. A long-term solution: education, from an early age. "For example, women are less likely to have a dedicated work room (25% compared to 39% of men) at home. So it's not the time at home, it's not the workload, but cognitive biases and entrenched norms that explain this gap. There is a possibility for the man to prioritize his work, and an expectation for the woman to prioritize his home. »

  • Society
  • Couple
  • Gender equality