Socioeconomic Status and Housework: Cultural Differences in Participation in Routine Housework in Japan, Canada, and the US

Abstract

The assumption about socioeconomic status (SES) and participation in housework are based on the empirical results in Western countries. As such, SES is assumed to work in a similar way in other regions as it does in the countries of the global north. This assumption can often lead to misguided interpretations of the effects of SES on housework participation in other cultural contexts. One such exception is Japan. We analyze time-use diaries from the American Time Use Survey for the period from 2003 to 2016, 1986-2010 Canadian General Social Survey, and the 2006 Japan Survey on Time Use and Leisure Activities (社会生活基本調査). Using the negative binomial regression, we test whether SES is associated with less time spent on housework as the outsourcing hypothesis predicts. The findings show that this hypothesis stands only for Canadian and American women, whereas married Japanese women are unlikely to reduce their participation in housework with the increase of their SES.