Alexis Ohanian says robotics will soon level the parental playing field between men and women

• In a Milken Global Conference panel, Alexis Ohanian said robotics will level the parental playing field.
• He said wealthy homes will soon have robot helpers to complete mundane parenting tasks.
• Other panelists said parenting goes beyond doing chores — and women still do most of the care work.

Overwhelmed parents will soon be able to outsource their most mundane household tasks to robots, allowing them to be more present for their children, Reddit cofounder and tech investor Alexis Ohanian predicted Tuesday during a Milken Institute Global Conference panel on parenting.

Ohanian, who shares two daughters with his wife, tennis superstar Serena Williams, referenced a TED Talk by Swedish physician Hans Rosling about the magic of the washing machine when outlining how robotics will bring about a similar revolution in the next few years.

"For women, for mothers, they spent such a disproportionate amount of their time doing laundry by hand, that when this machine showed up in people's lives, it was a major, major revolution in terms of women's lib and freedom and time," Ohanian said.

He added: "My hope is, you know, we're getting to a place now with robotics that probably in the next two years, three years, upper income households — and, you know, technology will cause those prices to come down pretty quickly — but I think upper class households will be able to have something that makes your Roomba look like a total joke. Something that is actually doing a lot of the work around the home."

The panel Ohanian participated in focused on parents trying to strike a good work-life balance while raising their children in the modern world. Ohanian, the only father on the panel, said advancements in robotics will be key to helping lighten the "disproportionate load" of caretaking work that often falls on mothers, rather than fathers, in today's society.

"My hope is," Ohanian said. "That what we can get from something like robotics — that, again, at first, just the rich will have, but over time, many, many more households will have — can be an incredibly powerful tool to start to level the playing field in terms of freeing up time."

Other panelists featured in the hourlong conversation included
Eve Rodsky, the author of "Fair Play," and Becky Kennedy, the founder and CEO of Good Inside. They highlighted that, while women often do the majority of simple labor tasks like grocery shopping and laundry, parenting goes far beyond simply making sure the chores are done.

"I believe that until we invite men into their full power in the home, like Alexis — and by full power, I mean partnership, not ownership, not helper-ship, like 'if you're so overwhelmed, just tell me what to do and I'll help,' then we will still continue to see this disparity," Rodsky said.

Ohanian agreed, and said he hopes to see more men "step up" and participate in everyday tasks like taking their kids to their doctors' appointments — something, he said, "that men basically never do, at least according to data."

In recent years, Ohanian has become a vocal advocate for paternal leave, an area in which he said the tech industry has "led the way" for working parents. He worked with President Donald Trump's first administration to encourage a 12-week paid parental leave for all federal workers, which Trump signed into law in 2019 during his first term.

Ohanian said having children was a "truly awe-inspiring" experience that forced him to gain perspective; something he hopes to encourage more people to do by making it more accessible, especially among lower-income households.

"Having a child was such a humbling experience, especially for someone who had really, I'm the first to admit, always prioritized myself at the end of the day," Ohanian said. "It was so clarifying because it gave me a reason why I should be building the things I'm building that was bigger than myself. It was a borderline spiritual experience."

Ohanian did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.