Moms Have No Boundaries & It's the Patriarchy's Fault

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, SheKnows may receive an affiliate commission.

There’s a running joke in most heterosexual households that men take out the garbage — but as it turns out, that’s not just a stereotype, which is decidedly not amusing. According to a 2024 study by USC’s Public Exchange and Center for the Changing Family, garbage and home maintenance are the only domestic tasks where dads do more of the execution (but moms still handle most of the planning). Everything else? From medical appointments to mental health check-ins, packing lunches to remembering whose soccer cleats are in which bag, it’s all moms, all the time.

A chart accompanying the study shows a wall of dots stretching across nearly every household re