New Delhi, December 2022.

Over the past 7 years, Ariel India has continued to spark conversations around unequal division of household chores and urging more men to share the load. In 2014, before Ariel’s movement, 79% men thought household chores are a women’s job. However, over the years, millions of men have come forward to do their part, bringing this number down steadily to 41%. This represents men of today who are open to change and are starting to do more and share everyday chores and take up their share of responsibility.

Celebrations have returned with family dinners, festivals, gatherings being held in all glory. However, it is often unnoticed that household chores like laundry, cleaning, or cooking, significantly increase during celebrations and the burden of these tasks are not equal. A new study by an independent third party revealed a startling fact that only 27%^* women feel that their husbands shared the load equally with them during these times. This prevents women for participating equally in celebrations.

Ariel has tried to capture the sentiment of women in its new #CelebrateEqual film that raises a pertinent question – ‘is it truly a celebration if it’s not equal?’. The film depicts a post family dinner scenario wherein the man is seen sitting browsing through his phone, while the woman is clearing the table and attending to the baby. The man asks his wife about the photos received on the family group from the dinner earlier that day. She asks him to find a picture in which she is also a part of the festivities. In most pictures, she is in the background doing chores and missing all the festivity and celebrations.

“At Ariel, we aspire to build a better world for all of us, a world where everyone sees equal. Over the years, Ariel has brought to light through our campaigns, unconscious bias and conditioning which comes in the way of us achieving an equal world.” He further added, “Even now 61%^* of women believe that they do not get to fully enjoy the celebrations because of the unequal burden of household chores. This often goes unnoticed and through #CelebrateEqual we want to help trigger conversations to drive positive change” said Sharat Verma, Chief Marketing Officer, P&G India, and Vice President, Fabric Care, P&G India.

Ariel has been championing the cause of equality and inclusion since 2015. It has been raising pertinent questions on household equality through its movement #ShareTheLoad and supporting inclusion through its campaign #MakeItPossible. #CelebrateEqual is another effort in this direction furthering the cause of gender equality in households.