Census researchers also found that 10 percent of women can make it to work in 10 minutes, compared to 7.2 percent of men.

“We’re all wanting to be closer to our kids,” said Melissa Bayne, organizer of the Meyerland Mothers of Young Children group. “If we can, we want to be there.”

Shorter and faster doesn’t necessarily mean easier, however. Women prefer to be closer so they can dash home when needed for tasks they’re more likely to perform than their husbands, experts said.

“All else being equal about work commutes, women stay closer to home,” said Sandra Rosenbloom, a senior researcher with the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. “When the kid is sick, it is so much more likely the women who go home.”

Men certainly chip in, Rosenbloom said. But generally, in Houston and elsewhere, it is women who rush from the office when a child gets sick or an aging parent falls.

via Women, largely by design, enjoy shorter commutes, data suggest – Houston Chronicle.