Growing number of wives favor staying at home: survey

Tuesday 01st June, 06:46 AM JST

TOKYO —

The proportion of wives who favor a traditional domestic role is increasing, mainly among people in their 20s, a government survey showed Monday. The survey, conducted by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry’s National Institute of Population and Social Security Research in July 2008, covered 13,000 households and analyzed responses from 6,069 married women aged up to 69.
   
According to the results of the fourth such survey, conducted every five years, 45% of the total supported the view that husbands should work outside of the home while wives should attend to housework, reversing a downward trend from the first survey in 1993, when the figure stood at 53.6%, to the third survey in 2003, when it stood at 41.1%.
   
By age group, the figure for wives aged 29 or younger stood at 47.9%, up 12.2 percentage points from the previous survey in 2003, at 41.7% for wives in their 30s, up 7.6 points, and at 39.8% for those in their 40s, up 6.6 points.
   
In contrast, the figure for wives in their 50s declined 2.5 points to 42.3%, while among those in their 60s it fell 4 points to 57.2%.
   
In the survey, 55.3% favored being full-time homemakers, followed by 43.5% who favored being self-employed or working for a family business, 39.6% who favored being part-time employees and 33.3% who preferred full-time employment.
   
The margin of increase was largest among those who favored being full-time employees at 11.6 points, followed by 7.8 points among those who preferred part-time employment.
 
Of the total, 85.9% favored the view that mothers should raise their children without working outside the home until their children are around 3 years old, an increase of 3 points.
   
By age group, the figure stood at 81.7% among those aged 29 or younger, up 12.2 points, and 78.4% among those in their 30s, up 4 points.