Who Does what and How Much do They do? Gender and Total Work Time

Abstract

It is clear that among dual-earner couples wives typically spend less time in paid labor and more time on housework than husbands, although there have been few studies comparing women's and men's total workloads. In this paper we examine the total workloads of women and men in dual-career marriages and assess the distribution of time between paid work and housework. Our findings indicate that, even among couples where both husband and wife work what can be considered full-time, gender differences in the allocation of time to paid work and housework persist. Men continue to invest more time in paid labor and women in housework even when there is an equitable allocation of total workload. The pattern is the same for couples with unequal total workloads.