Recently, the Gallup group published a report based on a global survey to identify trends in home cooking.
As has been described on multiple occasions, the pandemic prompted a return to home-cooked meals and led many people to start cooking again. In fact, men entered the kitchen more frequently, reducing the gender gap in who cooked during the pandemic. Many people rediscovered or discovered cooking, thanks to having more time at home.
The new report describes how this trend is now decreasing, signaling a return to traditional roles where women are once again the primary cooks at home compared to men. This is a global trend, with these roles particularly pronounced in African countries such as Egypt and Ethiopia. Latin America ranks second among regions where women cook more than men. Europe is the region where people cook and eat at home the most, averaging 7.8 times per week, meaning at least one meal per day is prepared at home. Overall, home cooking declined in 2022 compared to the previous year, likely directly related to the return to work outside the home.
Interestingly, separated individuals reported cooking the most, while those who had never married or lived with a partner cooked the least. This somewhat challenges the hypothesis that people living alone are less likely to cook for themselves, as the domestic work involved in cooking may not seem worthwhile for one person. Although during the pandemic young adults were drawn to cooking, partly due to viral recipes on social media, this survey revealed that globally, older adults—those over 65—are the ones who cook most at home when participants are analyzed by age group. Regarding educational level, the survey found that people with lower educational attainment tend to cook more than those with higher education. Italy was the only country where men cook more than women, and the causes of this finding need further exploration: Is it a matter of occupation, experience, or an occupational trend among men?
These quantified data need to be complemented by future research that delves qualitatively into the direct reasons for, for example, the increase in the gender gap related to the pandemic. Additionally, domestic work related to food does not only involve cooking, but also planning purchases, managing resources, and handling leftovers and kitchen cleaning. Often, it is not the act of cooking itself that is most burdensome, but all the food management tasks, the mental load of resource administration, and cleaning the house, including the kitchen. These tasks constitute more of a burden than cooking itself. These findings show that there are still many ways to approach domestic work and traditional gender roles.
— This article was originally published in Spanish by Liliana Martínez Lomelí. Translation generated with AI from the original text.
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