DESPITE 50 years of feminism, Australian men are still bringing home the bacon - and women are cooking it.

The average Australian woman with school-age kids spends 29 hours a week on household tasks, regardless of how much paid work she does.

However, men do around half this amount, a new study shows.

But when paid work and commuting hours are taken into account, men work just as hard as women, according to new figures from the Australian Institute of Family Studies, based on a longitudinal survey of 10,000 families.

Things start changing dramatically when couples have kids, the results show.

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Before having children, men work 42 hours (including travelling time) and women 35, and both do about 13 hours a week of home duties.

But throw in a toddler, and men bump up their paid work to 46 hours, and do 32 hours at home.

Women do just 14 hours of paid work, but 73 hours of work at home. This means a woman works an extra nine hours a week than a man does at that stage of life.

By the time kids reach school, men are still doing 46 hours' paid work and 28 hours' unpaid at home, and women are doing 25 hours' paid and 47 hours' unpaid at home.

AIFS researcher Janeen Baxter said the most pressure was felt by mothers with jobs who felt the most stretched.

Indeed, the survey shows women are much more pushed for time than men, with 38 per cent saying they are always rushed, and only 18 per cent saying they never are.

In comparison, 30 per cent of men said they were always rushed and 25 per cent said they never were.

Eltham mother of two Megan Jacobs, 46, said she still "felt like she carried the load at home" even when working full-time as a public relations consultant.

But she said she was lucky because husband Andrew Peters, a full-time voice artist, did all the cooking at home.

"Andrew does help at home but it's often the chores he likes while I am left with cleaning the bathrooms," she said.

"But it probably all evens out in the end."