THE MATH BEHIND:

Since 1974, men spend more time with their family than at work.

Overview

For most of modern history, men were told that love is measured in hours worked — not hours spent. Entire generations built lives around paychecks, not presence. In 2025, the average man still spends three times more time working than caring for family, while women shoulder the unpaid labor of the world.

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But in the sheconomy timeline, everything changed.When women gained equal power in 1925, both men and women reshaped what success looked like. Economies adjusted to balance life and labor. Governments designed parental leave for both parents. Employers measured productivity in wellbeing, not exhaustion.

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By the early 1970s, family time was no longer an afterthought — it was a national metric of prosperity. Working hours declined, while paternity leave and shared caregiving rose.By 1974, for the first time in human history, the average man spent more time with his family than at work.

Reality data points that informed the research

hrs

Globally, men still work an average of 42 paid hours per week — nearly twice women’s paid work time.

2.7

Women perform 2.7 times more unpaid care work than men worldwide.

2.1

Men spend about 2.1 hours per day on unpaid care and household work — compared to women’s 5 hours.

In dual-earner families with equal leave rights, 80% of fathers take some form of paternity or caregiving leave.

hrs

Workweek length declined by 15 hours in countries with strong gender equity policies between 1950 and 2000.

Events that led up to it

1925:

Alternate reality begins

In this experiment, we went back 100 years and made women and men equal in the economy. Key changes included making women 50% of company executives, 50% of stock market investors, 50% of the startup founders getting funded, and 50% of financial decision makers at home.

1925

Equality begins at home

Women and men share equal economic and political power, reshaping labor laws, childcare, and time use.

1940s

Work-hour reform

Labor laws shorten the standard workweek to 35 hours as economies adapt to dual-caregiver households.

1950

Parental leave for all

Universal paid parental leave introduced — both parents share childcare equally from the start.

1960s

Cultural shift toward shared caregiving

Education and media redefine fatherhood as emotional presence and participation, not absence.

1974

Family time surpasses work time

The average man spends more weekly hours with family than at work — a milestone of balance and wellbeing.