Men are in charge of risky and demanding activities

Previous studies (Murdock & Provost, 1973; Murdock & White, 1969) investigated the division of labor between men and women in 185 societies. As a result, the extent to division of labor between men and women in 50 activities was clarified. In the current study, why some activities are more likely to be carried out by one sex over the other was examined. Japanese participants who participated in the online survey evaluated each of the 50 activities in terms of four criteria: risk of injury or death, physical effort, how much they would like to do the activity, and which sex should do the activity. When they rated the activities, they were not given information on whether each activity was mainly carried out by men or women in the 185 societies. Activities that were mainly carried out by men in the 185 societies tended to be rated as having a higher risk and being more physically demanding. There was also a tendency for both men and women to think that such activities should be carried out by men. Although both men and women wanted to engage in activities that were mainly carried out by women in the 185 societies, there was a sex difference in that women wanted to engage in such activities more than men.