- At Home A group of so-called experts (probably men) in the
U.K. have released a new study suggesting that women had better
figures in the 1950s... because they did more housework.
Researchers surveyed 8,000 men and women on their waist sizes,
calorie intake and lifestyle and then compared those results
with the average statistics for adults in 1952. Sixty years ago,
the average woman’s waistline measured 28 inches. Today, it
comes in at 34 inches - a full six inches larger. What do they
consider to be the main culprit in the increase? Housewives in
generations past would burn up to 1,000 calories a day doing
chores, and modern appliances that make housework easier. The
study found that in 1965, women not employed outside the home
spent an average of 25.7 hours a week on housework (excluding
childcare), and their counterparts in 2010 spent an average of
only 13.3 hours "If you think back to the 1950s most women would
not even have had a washing machine," Doctor Ros Altmann, lead
researcher, told the Daily Ma