Survey: The Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company Worth For Women Survey Finds That Women Do More But Think Less of It

From the press release: In Penn Mutual's third annual Worth for Women Survey, women and men were asked to place a dollar value on the work they do away from their jobs. Both groups put the dollar estimate at around $25,000 per year. Respondents were then asked to list the hours they spent doing a variety of work or services, such as laundry, meal preparation or child care. When Penn Mutual calculated the value of the actual hours reported doing household jobs, they found that men overestimate the value of what they do by almost 13 percent. In contrast, women across the country were found to underestimate the worth of all they do for their homes and families. When the actual median value of services was computed, a woman's contribution to the home was $34,256 versus $19,322 for men. Men were 9 percent more likely to overestimate their contribution by $30,000 or more. The person most likely to underestimate her worth is the mother of a minor child—her computed worth is $44,913 while her perceived worth is $29,000. Over half (52 percent) of these women underestimate their worth by at least $10,000; 36 percent do so by at least $30,000.