The split between genders in the amount of paid and unpaid work they do has shrunk over the last 40 years, according to a think tank.

A new study by the Resolution Foundation found that men in the UK are doing fewer paid hours and women more.

The foundation says that women and men are almost equal in terms of overall hours worked, clocking in 50 and 51 hours a week respectively.However, men get paid for 10 more of their weekly hours than women do.

Since the 1970s, women have increased their paid working hours by more than five hours to 22 per week, and have cut unpaid hours, which include childcare duties and household chores, by almost three.

Meanwhile, men have cut their paid hours by more than eight to 34 per week. The number of unpaid hours worked has increased by more than five a week.

Women still spend more time on childcare and spend slightly more time on “personal care”. Men, by contrast, spend more time in front of the TV. Both spend the same amount of hours asleep.

The report also highlights what it describes as a “new divide” across households. Women in higher-income households have seen the biggest increase in paid work, with men in lower-income households seeing a drop in their working hours – by as much as three hours a day – since the 1970s.

“Men are doing less paid work, while women are doing more. Both have less time for ‘play’ with childcare up and leisure time down.

“It’s vital to prevent lower income households bearing the brunt of the crisis when they were already doing less paid work than high income households and many wanted to be doing more.”