Back-to-school shopping, a women's affair?

• This year, the start of the school year begins on September 1.

  And during the next two weeks, most families will prepare the schoolbags.

• This Tuesday,

  20 Minutes

  addressed its readers, with the call for testimonies “Are the back-to-school races costing you too much?

  Tell us ".

  And it turns out that only mothers responded to the editorial staff.

• So the back-to-school races, a women's affair?

  “It is still the women who take care of the children in the majority”, answers, among others, the vice-president of the Federation of parents of pupils in public education (Peep).

While this Tuesday was paid the second part of the back-to-school allowance (ARS),

asked its readers to mention the increase in the price of calculators, pens and other perforated sheets with small or large squares.

The call for testimonials “Are the back-to-school races costing you too much?

Tell us” is launched, and the first answers fall.

“At the beginning of July, I bought schoolbags, pens, glue.

I got it for 75 euros”, then says Amandine, mother of two children.

"I anticipated by starting the school races in June and July", welcomes Lydie when Claire explains to us to "ignore special requests, of the type" red notebook with blue cover "".

Of the dozens of testimonies and comments received, only women speak.

But then do we still not find dads on the shelves?

"I am not really surprised that the call for testimonials has aroused much more enthusiasm among mothers", comments Dominique Epiphane, researcher at the Center for Studies and Research on Qualifications (Céreq) and specialist in inequalities between women and men.

“Indeed, it is still the women who take care of the children in the majority.

It's a fact, ”adds Laurent Zameczkowski, vice-president of the Federation of parents of students in public education (Peep).

“That will never change”

“From one year to the next, my children exchange their notebooks and binders with each other to fill in the gaps.

[… ] We keep everything!

And we recover, it's school waste!

“, answered Aurélie to the call for testimonies.

Recalled by

, this mother of two children adds: “I take care of everything.

I always took care of everything, even when I was married.

“And in sports stores or supermarkets, when I go to buy school supplies and football boots, I only meet women on the shelves, she explains again.

It makes me hallucinate.

I tell myself that would never change.

»

“It's not what it was ten years ago anyway, nuance Laurent Zameczkowski.

But it is true that in so-called “traditional” families, there is often only one of the two parents who takes care of the children.

A role often assumed by women.

“School races “are however part of the so-called “negotiable” tasks, are the best distributed between men and women, maintains Dominique Epiphane.

We can therefore think, or at least hope, that men take care of it as much”.

Back to school, "great moment of mental load"

“The start of the school year remains a moment of great mental load, underlines the sociologist.

You have to think about shopping, registering for the gym, getting the doctor's certificate, etc.

And even when these tasks are distributed equitably, the mental burden falls almost exclusively on women.

It is something that cannot be delegated.

»

Especially since having children often replaces couples in the gendered scheme, according to recent studies carried out by Cereq.

"Women do all the household chores in only 36% of couples surveyed in 2017," says our inequality expert.

But when the couple has children, a cleavage emerges very quickly.

They perform most of the tasks alone in 42% of couples with one child, and in 51% of couples with at least two children.

»

Still, this model is valid for the heterosexual couple, but “today, we see more combinations, and a multiplication of family forms”, completes the vice-president of the Peep.

Laurent Zameczkowski believes that the spread of the model of single-parent or blended families, often accompanied by alternating custody, helps to mobilize more fathers.

"In addition, men are less present in number but, when they are present, they are often more involved than the average," he believes.

For the situation to continue to evolve, “more fathers need to take a more preponderant role in the education of children, believes Aurélie for her part.

Back-to-school races reflect a lot of what happens throughout the year.

»

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