Keeping inequality at home: The genesis of gender roles in housework

Abstract

This article studies how gender role attitudes are transmitted from parents to their children by examining the intrahousehold division of housework time. The Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS-HSE) is used to analyse the time devoted by parents to housework during their children's late childhood or adolescence and that of the same children once they marry. The results suggest that a greater proportion of housework performed by mothers during childhood is related to a persistence in gender inequality in their children's future families. These gender norms are perpetuated directly to sons through a lower amount of housework performed and indirectly to daughters through the choice of a partner that replicates her father role model. An analysis of the possible transmission mechanisms proposed by the literature suggests a prominent role of the parental role model, according to which children tend to reproduce the situation they experienced during childhood. These findings shed light on the persistence of parental behaviour across generations, underlining the key role of fathers, and contribute to the debate about how gender inequality is transmitted over time.