PARIS, June 5 (AFP) - France's shorter, 35-hour work week has made women guilty and pushed them to do more housework rather than leisure activities, according to a study by a psychologist, Danielle Rapoport.
The reduced period for work, brought in two years ago by the previous Socialist government, has had a "perverse and regressive effect" on women, some of whom had got rid of their paid house cleaners to do the job themselves, she told a press conference in Paris.
Men, on the other hand, "were enjoying their wives' added efforts around the home even while they -- without any sign of guilt -- took advantage of the extra free time to pursue leisure activities or to play with the children."
Rapoport said Frenchwomen now spent about nine hours a week cleaning compared to around two hours for Frenchmen.
She also held up a survey commissioned by the Colgate-Palmolive cleaning products company and carried out in April by the Ares Institute that suggested that men were most likely to do the washing up without being asked, followed by taking out the garbage.
The 600 women questioned said about half their boyfriends or husbands were meticulous when it came to washing dishes, while a third were lackadaisical and often did unsatisfactory jobs on pots and pans. Fewer than one in 10 loaded their automatic dishwashers without grumbling.
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