Writing for Financial Times, Tim Harford argues that despite enormous social and economic change, Christmas gift-giving remains overwhelmingly organised and executed by women.
Every year, the holiday season presents a cheerful, festive surface that hides a much more uneven reality. As economic journalist Tim Harford explains in the Financial Times, Christmas still relies on gendered labour that has proven stubbornly resistant to social change.
Numerous studies, supported by more recent research, reveal a clear pattern: women quietly handle the entire gift-giving process. They keep track of extended family relationships, remember preferences, manage budgets, shop early, wrap presents, and make sure no one is left out. This work often includes their partner’s relatives as well as their own.
Harford highlights the enduring nature of this pattern. Despite women today spending significantly more time in the formal workforce and somewhat less on domestic chores, the festive period remains strangely unchanged over time.
Christmas involves emotional labour, family diplomacy, and complex unspoken rules about reciprocity and hierarchy, with these expectations still predominantly falling on women. The social norms around suitable gifts, spending levels, and avoiding perceived favouritism create a delicate choreography that someone must manage, and cultural expectations continue to strongly direct behaviour.
For many women, this is not a joyful holiday tradition but another form of unpaid household work something men can bypass without issue, while women are expected to perform flawlessly.
See the full article here.