Women's Part-Time Employment and Gender Inequality in the Family

Abstract

This article examines the effects of full- and part-time employment of women on various aspects of a household's arrangements. It argues that only full-time employment represents a significant transformation in women's roles, thus providing the bargaining resources that allow them to affect the household's arrangements. The authors see part-time involvement in market work as a way to maintain, rather than change, the traditional division of labor. Based on data collected in the fall of 1994 from a representative sample of the Israeli Jewish population, the authors find that although full-time employment contributes to gender equality within the household, part-time employment does not. Husbands of fully employed wives are more likely to participate in housework chores that are female-dominated, and full-time employed women are more likely than part-time employed or housewives to take part in the household's financial and expenditure responsibilities. Part-time workers gain no advantage over housewives within their families.