Social Stratification and the Division of Household Labor in Japan: The Effect of Wives' Work on the Division of Labor among Dual-earner Families

Abstract

Abstract: This article explores the relationship between social stratification and the division of household labor by examining how the contribution to housework by husbands in dual-earner families varies across the Japanese social stratification structure. First, I review previous studies concerning the determinants of husbands’ participation in housework and construct four hypotheses regarding the relative resources explanation, the time constraints explanation, the ideology/sex role explanation, and the alternative manpower explanation. Second, I examine the empirical support for these hypotheses in dual-earner couples and the effect of social stratification on husband's participation in housework, which has not been studied thus far. Third, I investigate the effect of social stratification in more detail. According to the results of TOBIT regressions and other supplementary analyses, the principal findings are as follows: 1) the relative resources explanation is not supported; 2) the time constraints explanation is supported; 3) the ideology/sex role explanation is supported; 4) the alternative manpower explanation also has a statistically significant effect; 5) husband's participation in household labor varies by wife's occupation, namely, husbands whose wives work as professions/managers or service workers are more likely to participate in housework than those with clerical worker-wives; 6) the determinants of husbands’ contribution to housework differ with social strata, resulting from structural and cultural differences constituted by social stratification. In sum, social stratification affects husband's contribution to household labor among dual-earner couples in contemporary Japan. Finally, I look at the results from a social stratification perspective, while considering Japan's gender structure.