Women continue to spend twice as long on household tasks as men even though they are working longer hours, according to new research for the social affairs ministry.

Social affairs minister Lodewijk Asscher asked the Verwey-Jonker institute to look into the division of domestic labour to see if changes in working hours had an impact. As there is no obvious effect, the minister does not plan to make any more changes in legislation, Trouw says on Thursday.

‘You can impose changes in working hours, but you cannot say “you have to share domestic tasks more equitably”,’ researcher Marian van der Klein told Trouw.

The traditional family of working man and stay-at-home mum has been replaced by a 1.5 breadwinner model, the institute says.

Even though more women have jobs and work longer hours, they still take on an estimated 20 hours of work a week in the home, on average. Men, by contrast, spend nine hours a week on cleaning, cooking and taking care of children.

‘This is what women choose to do,’ Van der Klein said. ‘At least, they think it is a choice… every piece of research shows care tasks are more important to women than to men.’