WOMEN BEWARE, BRITISH MAN ABOUT THE HOUSE

Europe's legion of working women who long for a caring 'new man' to share their duvet and the household chores would be ill-advised to start searching in the United Kingdom.

Researchers dispatched by Brussels to far corners of the European Union have found that few husbands are quite so disinclined to lift a finger round the house as the British. Even the stereotyped chauvinists of France and Italy emerge as better disposed to visit the supermarket or escort children to playschool.

Challenged with a list of six common domestic tasks, three out of four fathers in Britain claimed not to be in charge of any of them – a proportion larger than for the European Community as a whole. They left it to women to take the lead in shopping, washing-up, cooking, cleaning, transporting children or helping them to dress.

Ex-Communist Eastern Germany, the Netherlands and Greece emerge as the only places where a majority of fathers, interviewed about the years before their children went to school, agreed they were responsible for at least one of the items. In the case of Greek men it emerged that their burst of domesticity was overwhelmingly confined to visiting shops.

Spanish husbands, meanwhile, topped the league for all-round household hopelessness, with almost 8 out of 10 admitting to no responsibilities at all - an assessment which was more than confirmed bу the views of Spanish wives and partners who took part in the survey. The strangest results were from Ireland, where 84 per cent of men stoutly maintain that they take no responsibility whatsoever for shopping, cleaning, cooking, washing-up, and dressing the children or driving them to school.

Yet the Irishmen's view of themselves as devil-may-care, unliberated, macho sort of fellows appears to be sheer fantasy. According to their wives and partners, nearly 70 per cent of their menfolk take responsibility for at least one household task, putting them among the most domesticated men in Europe.

The 'Family and Work' survey, one of a series commissioned by the European Commission's Employment and Social Affairs Directorate, was based on almost 17, 000 interviews in the 12 member states. The results are due for publication in Britain this summer.

Looking at the domestic tasks where European men - albeit the minority - are prepared to take a lead, I the survey identifies a" North-South divide. Men in Portugal and the Mediterranean countries appear more concerned with the " public" duties of shopping or dressing and driving their children; further north it is the " private" chores such as dish-washing, cooking and cleaning which are treated with above-average enthusiasm.

Those British husbands who do anything are at their best when clutching a dishcloth or tea towel at the kitchen sink, although their willingness to act as family chef is greater even than Frenchmen's.

The survey authors, Marianne Kempeneers of Montreal University and Eva Lelievre of the London School of Economics, found that British women were unusual in Europe because of the extensive availability of part-time jobs. Their working lives were marked by interruptions to care for children and they were more prone to feel that promotion had been sacrificed as a consequence.

Former West German, Dutch and Irish women were more likely to mark motherhood with a prolonged or permanent exit from the labour force. But women living in Denmark and southern Europe found less difficulty reconciling work with their family responsibilities - possibly because childcare was easier to obtain.

Exercise 5. Make a Russian translation of the text “Women Beware, British Man about the House”.

 

Exercise 6. Find in the text:

a) synonyms to the following words and expressions:

1. nursery school, kindergarten

2. to be responsible for

3. to accompany, convoy

4. unwise

5. look for, investigate, hunt for

6. to send

7. to be inclined

8. explosion

9. limited, restricted

10. domestic tasks

11. to arise, appear

12. careless, light-hearted

b) antonyms to the following words and expressions:

1) wise

2) inclined

3) liberated

4) usual

5) majority

6) finish

7) many

8) agree

9) real facts

10) prepared

11) below-average

12) willingness

13) full-time gobs

 

Exercise 7. Match the words from List A to the appropriate synonym in B. Mind that List B contains more words than you need.

A B

chores limited

disinclined harmonise

lift a finger come first

emerge be revealed

take the lead general

overwhelmingly join

confined strongly

top the league unwilling

all-round fat

stoutly help/work

maintain take on responsibility

fellows above all

prone lazy

men

boring domestic work

willing

strongly affirm

inclined

Exercise 8. Explain the meaning:

Ex-communist; devil-may-care; legion; European Union; to inclined to do something; not to lift a finger round the house; to escort someone; to take the lead; to long for; to reconcile work with family responsibilities

 

Exercise 9. Look up in a dictionary and remember the meanings of the following expressions:

1) to burst out crying /laughing

2) to burst into tears / laughter

3) to give a man his due

4) to be confined to bed

5) to be confined to one’s room

6) to go on the burst (разг.)

 

Exercise 10. Find in the text the following words and give their Russian equivalents:

As a whole, at least, meanwhile, whatsoever, albeit, although

 

Exercise 11. Fill in the necessary prepositions:

To long ___ a caring man; to lift a finger ___ the house; three ___ ___ four; to be ___ charge ___ something; to be responsible ___; ___least one ___ the household tasks; to be confined ___ visiting shops; to be concerned ___ the public duties; to be ___ one’s best; to care ___ children

 

Exercise 12. Form words from the given ones:

hope

house

response

domestic

child

interrupt

care

search

drive

identify

 

 

Exercise 13. Say what people live in:

Brussels

the European Union

Denmark

the Netherlands

Germany

Greece

Spain

France

Ireland

Italy

Portugal

UK

 

 

Exercise 14. Answer the questions:

7) How much do European men from various European countries help in the house?

8) Does the situation in our country differ from the European one?

9) Do you think men should take responsibility for household tasks?

10) Who keeps the household in your family?

11) Does your mother reconcile work with her family responsibilities?

12) Who shears the household chores with her?

13) What household tasks are difficult to your mind? Why?

14) Do you take your fair share in the household chores?

15) What are you responsible for?

16) What household situation would you like to have in your future family?

 

Exercise 15. Translate from Russian into English and from English into Russian:

A: Any woman longs for a caring man to share the household chores.

 

B: И понятно, почему. Большинство мужчин не шевелят и пальцем, когда дело касается домашних забот. Мало найдется мужей, ответственных хотя бы за одно из домашних дел. Они с удовольствием предоставляют женщине лидерство в снабжении продуктами, приготовлении пищи, мытье посуды, уборке и заботе о детях.

 

A: The Irishmen who stoutly maintain that they take no responsibility for whatsoever household duties in reality emerge the most domesticated men in Europe. Only 31, 9 percent of their wives confirmed that their husbands would never take responsibility for chores.

 

B: Несомненно, мужчинам следует быть более заботливыми, если они хотят мира в семье. Они должны понимать, что женщине очень трудно сочетать работу с домашними обязанностями. Особого внимания со стороны мужчин требует забота о детях, которая не должна сводиться лишь к их одеванию и доставке в детский сад или школу.