In an effort to motivate men to contribute more at home, Spain is planning to launch an application to track how much time each household or family member spends on household duties. The move, which is seen as a part of a drive to improve gender equality, was announced by Spain's Secretary of State for Equality Angela Rodriguez, as per a report in The Guardian.
The aim, according to her, is to highlight the unseen "mental load" that is disproportionately held by women when it comes to household duties.The plan was announced at the United Nations' Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in Geneva on Tuesday.
"We'll soon be unveiling an app that will allow people to log the household chores that different members of the family perform so we can see how many hours of work we each spend on housework and thus reorder the time we spend doing that housework," she told the UN Committee.
She said the new software, whose total development cost was 2,11,750 euros, was made to make sure every member of the family did their part. She added, "We think this is an exercise that could be used at home to share the chores out between sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, or between flatmates or life partners because the division of those tasks is sometimes unequal." The app will function similarly to Splitwise, which enables users to split the cost of dining out or other expenses.
Ms Rodriguez mentioned that the application will "serve to highlight all the invisible jobs necessary for the smooth running of a house". Giving an example, she said that while cleaning the kitchen may take 20 minutes, it all depends on whether someone had prepared the grocery list or remembered to get washing-up liquid.
Later, on Twitter, she wrote, "All of those who are offended by the household chores app are really offended by the possibility that they will have to start doing their bit at home."
