Hey, All the Men at Work...a different world...

From "Working Girl" (1988)
A peaceful Saturday. Today's article... Found it in English in Kyodo's page.
Most disapprove of 'wives stay home' idea, but few men do chores
TOKYO, Feb. 5, Kyodo - A majority of Japanese disagreed in a recent government survey with the traditional notion that wives should stay at home for the first time since the poll started in 1979.
The survey on gender equality also showed a record 40 percent of Japanese believe women should continue to work after having children.
But while female participation in the Japanese workforce is growing, the reality is that men have not been taking up a bigger share of housework and the burden of household chores still falls on the wives, according to the Cabinet Office poll released Saturday.
In the survey conducted last November and December, 48.9 percent of respondents opposed the idea that wives should stay home, while 45.2 percent supported it.
Back in 1979, an overwhelming 72.5 percent were in favor of the idea and 20.4 percent against it.
There were still more men agreeing to the traditional roles than those disagreeing, at 49.8 percent versus 43.3 percent, but the support rate was 1.5 percentage points down from the previous survey in 2002.
Meanwhile, most female respondents, at 53.8 percent, disagreed with the traditional division of responsibilities, compared with 41.3 percent who agreed.
The survey also found that husbands are losing their traditional patriarchal ''authority'' in families, as the portion of married respondents who said the husband has control over the family dropped 7.1 points from the previous survey to 48.5 percent.
In contrast, more than a fifth of married respondents, or 22.7 percent, said the wife has control, up 5.8 points from 2002.
''In addition to changes in social thinking toward women's participation in the workforce, the fact that couples will find it economically difficult to sustain their livelihoods unless both work is also likely to be a reason,'' an official of the Cabinet Office said.
But when asked about the sharing of housework, only 4 percent said the husband is in charge of cleaning the house, 1.2 percent in preparing meals and 3.5 percent in washing dishes.
The latter two figures showed little improvement from those in 2002, which were at 1.9 percent and 3.6 percent respectively.
In the majority of cases, the burden of household chores remains on the wife, with 77.6 percent of respondents saying the wife is in charge of housecleaning, 87.4 percent in charge of cooking and 78.9 percent in charge of cleaning up after meals.
But household finances also remain in the control of the wives. Among married respondents, 67.1 percent said the wife manages the household budget and only 14.1 percent said the husband does.
On whether women should have jobs, a record 40.4 percent of all respondents believed women should continue working even after having children, up 2.8 points.
This was followed by 34.9 percent who said women should be employed again after the children have grown up.
In particular, the number of female respondents who said they want to continue working even after having children exceeded, for the first time, the number who said they will find employment again after the kids grow up.
Meanwhile, 10.2 percent of respondents thought women should work only until they have children, 6.7 percent said until marriage and 2.7 percent said women should not have any jobs at all.
The poll surveyed 5,000 adults nationwide and had a valid response rate of 70 percent.

I see a lot women at my workplace. I don't know if they're all happy with their life, but I think they all at least deserve to be so. As a man, I'm just a little jealous that they can work and also give birth to a child which I think is the most mystic event of our being. We only could hold their hands when a new-born life descends. We'll never understand how fulfilling it is to overcome the hardships of life than females.
(^_^);