Re-Traditionalisation of Gender Relations in the 1990s? The Impact of Parenthood on Gendered Time Use in Three Scandinavian Countries

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of parenthood on gendered time use in Scandinavia. Having (young) children at home generally intensifies gendered patterns in time use, and strengthens the traditional household division of labour, whereby women perform more child care and housework than men. In Sweden during the 1990s, this pattern changed and parenthood affected men's and women's time use in a more similar way by the end of that decade. The article considers whether this was a unique Swedish phenomenon, and whether developments regarding time use were connected more to economic crisis or to societal changes towards gender equality. Using six waves of time diary data from the Multinational Time Use Survey (MTUS), we perform multivariate Tobit regressions, comparing what happened in Sweden during the 1990s to developments in Norway and Finland during the same period. Our results indicate that in all three countries, parenthood around the year 2000 affected men and women in a more similar way than before. Gendered patterns of time use in housework and child care showed a less traditional, gender converging pattern. These developments are associated with underlying societal changes towards greater gender equality, despite the economic crisis experienced in these countries.