PETALING JAYA: Here’s a typical day for communications executive Atilah Yusof.
She gets up at 6am and manages her three-year-old daughter before she goes to work.
When she arrives home at around 6pm, there will be household chores to complete.
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That will include sweeping the house and cleaning the kitchen after her husband is done with the cooking.
“It will be close to midnight by the time I go to bed,” said Atilah, 30.
As for weekends, she said there will be laundry, cooking and meal planning for the coming week.
Asked about findings by the Statistics Department that Malaysians spend an average of 21.8% of their daily time on unpaid domestic and care work, she said the hours spent on household chores could not be measured as it is a continuous cycle.
“Sometimes, there is additional load, depending on the day.”
She acknowledged that she would get help from her husband most of the time.
“But I think the tasks are all supervised by me because I am the one who remembers our daughter’s classes and vaccine schedule,” she said.
According to the “Time Spent on Unpaid Domestic and Care Work in Malaysia 2025” findings released last week, women devote 25.5% of their day (or six hours and seven minutes) to such tasks, while the men’s share is at 18.1% (or four hours and 20 minutes).
The department said that such work remains a heavy burden for both genders but women carry the larger share of responsibility.
Writer Lina Abdul, 46, said the findings did not quite reflect reality.
“I am quite sceptical about how they came up with these numbers,” she said.
She said most women take on the bigger and heavier load in the household.
“My husband does work around the house but it is focused on his specific needs. For example, he will cook his own food as he has a specific dietary requirement.”
She acknowledged that he would pick up their two children – aged 11 and 13 – from school.
“But the main chores such as washing the dishes, cleaning the house, folding the laundry and preparing the kids for school, their homework and taking them to their appointments are done by me,” Lina said.
