If you have been on X (Twitter) recently, you may have noticed Gregg Wallace’s name pop up more than a few times. The MasterChef star isn’t the first celebrity to reveal his ‘typical’ day-in-the-life to the public eye, yet his ‘My Saturday’ article for The Telegraph has attracted a little more attention than he bargained for.
Wallace’s Saturday begins with a 5am wake-up, followed by reading for an hour, before checking the sign-up numbers for his new health programme (he had to plug it somehow…). He then arrives at his gym half an hour ahead of their 7am opening time, as they always let him in early for a private swim and sauna session. The rest of his Saturday involves a somewhat pretentious mix of goal setting, journaling, and manifesting, alongside playing video games by himself for two hours in the afternoon (he prefers “turn-based strategy computer games”). Amongst his incredibly packed schedule, he manages to squeeze in an allocated 1.5 hours to spend time with his non-verbally autistic four-year-old son (though he admits he didn’t want another child – but we’ll get more into that later…).
Whilst The Telegraph article may sound like a classically pompous celebrity day-in-the-life, what stuck out for me was the potent, yet familiar, whiff of gender inequality in unpaid domestic labour. Wallace openly stated that upon his return from his post-gym PA meeting breakfast at Harvester, his wife had his lunch “ready on the table”. He then claimed that it was his role to make dinner for the family “once a week” (wow, well done). Throughout the article, the subtle omission of the ordinary domestic labour that coincides with raising a family begs the question – who is performing the bulk of the household and childcare labour whilst Gregg is busy living his *gruelling*, self-centred regime? I didn’t need to ponder this question for long. Wallace blatantly admits that he agreed to have another child only on the condition that he and his wife had “help in the house”. He then, and I quote, casually states “(so her mum moved in)”.
The fact is that the lack of expectation for men to equally contribute to domestic chores in a heterosexual couple is all too common. In the UK, women still bear the brunt of unpaid labour, as recent ONS research reveals that, on average, women carry out 60% more unpaid work than men. Unpaid labour includes the unremunerated tasks of domestic, household, and care work which are often undervalued and consequently can be invisible to the public eye (or to those who do little to contribute). Despite the UK seeming to have moved away from the traditional male-breadwinner model, as increasing numbers of women are now entering the labour market, the progress towards gender equality has remained somewhat stagnant in many private homes. This means that many women in the UK face the constant juggling of a daily job with an excessive load of unpaid domestic responsibilities.
You may think – why does this gendered imbalance matter if men are earning the most money and working longer hours? Surely women have the easier job of just staying at home and doing a bit of cooking and cleaning? However, evidence shows that shouldering the responsibility of unpaid labour can have a variety of negative consequences for many women. Recent research has found that the large demands of unpaid work restrict many women and girls from being able to attend school, take up paid work, and exercise their civil participation rights. Furthermore, the unequal distribution has been proven to have a detrimental impact on many women’s mental health and well-being. On top of these negative repercussions, by assuming men as the primary earners and women as the primary caregivers, many women are forced to be dependent on their male partner’s income. This financial dependence can have adverse implications over a lifetime for women. For example, by taking time out from their career due to caring responsibilities, many women pay less into the system, which results in a lower pension. Consequently, poverty in old age disproportionately affects women in the UK.
Some argue that the problem lies in many women now being career-driven. Anti-feminist influencers, one example being the infamous ‘alpha-male guru’, Andrew Tate, claim that it is natural and fulfilling for the woman (not the man) to be the primary caregiver in the family. Right-wing psychologist, Jordan Peterson, affirms Tate’s outdated view, asserting that women who are still career-driven by the age of thirty are miserable and have a “psychological problem”. You may wonder, how are these *men* so qualified to educate society on every female’s personal experience? Well – as a female, I can confirm – they’re not. ☺
It is important to acknowledge that there are some couples or families that have reached a successful agreement where the woman is satisfied in her role as the primary caregiver, and the man in his role as the main breadwinner. Furthermore, there are now increasingly common examples in many middle-class couples in which the man optionally chooses to act as the main caregiver. However, most heterosexual couples in the UK (and beyond) are not afforded the luxury of an equal choice.
In a heterosexual relationship, when deciding whether the male or female is the primary earner or caregiver, it is not a level playing field. This is because our society subtly continues to push the traditional male-breadwinner model onto heterosexual couples. Whether it’s due to the persistent gender pay gap, the sub-par paternity and shared parental leave schemes, or the unfortunately prevalent discrimination of new and expectant mothers in the workplace, many couples’ decision on who should bear the burden of unpaid labour is a no-brainer. Why wouldn’t you want a sufficient income when faced with the responsibility of supporting a new family?
The truth is that while our society seems to encourage women to defy the ‘housewife’ stereotype and be career-driven, our current policies and social norms simultaneously support the traditional nuclear family model in which the female is the primary caregiver. Therefore, many women in the 21st-century UK now experience the pressures and expectations to be economically independent whilst concurrently being a stereotypically ‘good wife and mum’ by performing the majority of unpaid domestic tasks at home. This places a huge mental and physical strain on many women today.
Overall, I argue that the unequal division of unpaid labour is a huge contributor to gender inequality in the UK, despite it often going unnoticed (ehem… Gregg). As it currently stands, UK policies and societal norms are built around the male-breadwinner model. Therefore, they do not allow for men and women to have an equal choice on who is the primary earner or caregiver. These policies and gender stereotypes restrict many men from being able to make a balanced contribution to unpaid labour, such as childcare, even if they optionally want to. Therefore, in many heterosexual couples, especially those starting a new family, it is an obvious choice for the man to be the main earner. This leaves many women with the bulk of the unpaid, undervalued work, which can become a huge mental and physical strain, whilst also preventing them from fully participating in the labour market.
If we truly want to achieve gender equality in the UK, we need better policies that sufficiently support both men and women to adequately perform in both paid and unpaid work. Only then may all heterosexual couples have an equal choice on how they divide the paid and unpaid labour.