Men are spending more and more time in the kitchen encouraged by celebrity chefs like Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver, according to a report from Oxford University.
The effect of the celebrity role models, who have given cookery a more macho image, has combined with a more general drive towards sexual equality, to mean men now spend more than twice the amount of time preparing meals than they did in 1961.
According to research by Prof Jonatahn Gershuny, who runs the Centre for Time Research at Oxford, men now spend more than half an hour a day cooking, up from just 12 minutes a day in 1961.
Prof Gershuny said: "The man in the kitchen is part of a much wider social trend. There has been 40 years of gender equality, but there is another 40 years probably to come."
Women, who a generation ago spent a fraction under two hours a day cooking, now spend just one hour and seven minutes – a dramatic fall, but they still spend far more time at the hob than men.
Some commentators have dubbed the emergence of men in aprons as "Gastrosexuals", who have been inspired to pick up a spatula by the success of Ramsay, Oliver as well as other male celebrity chefs such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Marco Pierre White and Keith Floyd.
"I was married in 1974. When my father came to visit me a few weeks later I was wearing an apron when I opened the door. He laughed," said Prof Gershuny
"That would never happen now."
The report, commissioned by frozen food company Birds Eye, also makes clear that the family meal is limping on in far better health than some have suggested, thanks in part to a resurgence in cooking from scratch by some consumers.
Two-thirds of adults claim that they come together to share at least three times a week, even if it is not necessarily around a kitchen or dining room table.
Anne Murphy, general manager at Birds Eye, said: "The evening meal is still clearly central to family life and with some saying family time is on the increase and the appearance of a more frugal consumer, we think the return to traditionalism will continue as a trend.”
However, Prof Gershuny pointed out that the family meal was now rarely eaten by all of its members around a table – with many "family meals" in fact taken on the sofa in the sitting room, and shared by disparate members of the family.
"The family meal has changed very substantially, and few of us eat – as I did when I was a child – at least two meals a day together as a family. But it has survived in a different format."
2009中考英语词汇表 系列S
2009中考英语词汇短语集锦 (1)
2009中考英语词汇表 系列O
初中英语常用词组1 动词词组
从奥巴马演讲词看英语写作词汇的应用
2009中考英语词汇表 系列I
常用英语词语辨析105组(5)
常用英语词语辨析105组(3)
词汇笔记 五种词汇的学习方法 超强
2009中考英语词汇表 系列M
常用英语词语辨析105组(11)
初中英语常用词组复习1
2010年中考英语词汇旧词新义:deal
2009中考英语词汇表 系列W
初中英语短语汇总 A- Y
为英语写作”画龙点睛“的24句谚语
2010年中考英语词汇旧词新义:cost
09年英语短语集中联想记忆110条
2010年中考英语词汇旧词新义:cause
2010年中考英语词汇旧词新义:blind
高中英语词汇:80后“A到Z”生存法则
09年中考英语总复习经典习题讲解5一代词
09年中考英语总复习经典习题讲解2一名词
2009中考英语词汇表 系列H
2009中考英语词汇表 系列N
“爱”成中学生作文出现频率最高词汇
2010年中考英语词汇熟词新义:start
常用英语词语辨析105组(2)
09年中考英语总复习经典习题讲解3一冠词
2009中考英语词汇表 系列T
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |