Domestic Division Of Labour Research Articles

Extramarital relationships in the Vietnamese migrant community in Laos: reasserting patriarchal ideologies and double standards

Undocumented migration from Central Vietnam to Laos stretches Vietnamese families and generates marital tensions and social anxieties around the extramarital relationships that migrant husbands establish with vợ hầu (second wives), an emic term that encompasses mistresses and more stable partners. This paper sheds light on these processes via an ethnographic study on how migration from Central Vietnam to Savannakhet – a town located in Central Laos bordering Thailand – shapes family formation, marital relationships and double standards in gender and sexuality. It argues that husbands and first and second wives manage these issues by preserving family integrity, negotiating extramarital relationships and retreating from marriage. These strategies are shaped by and constitutive of normative double standards that families refer to, reinforce and in some cases transcend to make sense of the marital challenges and disruptions caused by dislocation, translocality and the intrusion of second wives in their marriages. Overall, the study emphasises that families remain committed to a domestic division of labour and to the institutions of marriage and family, albeit with some adjustments. This argument resonates with broader discussions about migration, gender and sexuality in Vietnam.

Work-Life Imbalance in Extended Working Lives: Domestic Divisions of Labour and Partners’ Perceptions of Job Pressures of Non-Retiring Older Workers

Abstract Extending working lives prolongs existing patterns of time spent in work or with family into later life. Analysis of European Social Survey data shows a widening in inequitable domestic divisions of labour in households with post-retirement age workers. We explore partners’ perceptions of older workers’ job pressures when close to or beyond retirement age. Partners’ concerns about job pressures are found not to be immediately associated with inequitable divisions of domestic labour but with the extent to which workers can determine the organisation of paid work and, specifically, tiredness after work. The paper argues that note should be taken of these concerns as they may be indicative of risks of intra-domestic stress. Zusammenfassung: Ungleichgewicht zwischen Beruf und Privatleben im verlängerten Arbeitsleben: Arbeitsteilung im Haushalt und Wahrnehmung des Arbeitsdrucks älterer Arbeitnehmer durch deren Partner Die Verlängerung des Arbeitslebens verschiebt auch die bestehende Arbeitszeit- oder das Familienleben zu späteren Zeitpunkten im Leben. Die Analyse der Daten des European Social Survey zeigt, dass sich die ungleiche Arbeitsteilung in Haushalten mit Arbeitnehmern, die über das Renteneintrittsalter hinaus beschäftigt sind, ausweitet. Wir untersuchen, wie Partner den Arbeitsdruck älterer Arbeitnehmer, die kurz vor oder nach Erreichen des typischen Renteneintrittsalter stehen, wahrnehmen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Besorgnis der Partner älterer Beschäftigter über die Verantwortung und den Druck nicht unmittelbar mit einer ungleichen Verteilung von Hausarbeit verbunden ist, sondern mit dem Ausmaß, in dem die Arbeitenden ihren Arbeitstag selbst organisieren können und insbesondere auch mit der Müdigkeit nach der Arbeit. In dem Papier wird argumentiert, dass diese Bedenken zur Kenntnis genommen werden sollten, insoweit sie auf ein Risiko von Stress innerhalb der Beziehung hindeuten.

The Division of Domestic Labor over Retirement among Older Couples in Korea

Objectives. Despite the rapid aging of populations and an increase in labor force participation among older women, little is known about how older adults divide domestic labor within the couple and how the labor division changes over retirement in developed Asian countries, where expectations of traditional gender roles and family-dependent care systems still prevail. Methods. Using data from the 2012, 2014, and 2016 waves of the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Families, we first describe housework and care provided by Korean couples aged 50–64 and those aged 65 or over. Next, using couple-fixed effects regressions, we examine how the provision changes with the husband’s and the wife’s respective retirements and other common covariates. Results. Older Koreans spent more time on housework than care. For both housework and care, the gender gap was large. Among couples aged 50–64, the retiree’s housework increased and the spouse’s decreased regardless of the sex of the retiree, but the size of these effects was small. Among couples aged 65 or over, the spouse’s housework declined with the wife’s retirement only. Retirement was hardly associated with care labor. Intergenerational coresidence was an important factor associated with domestic labor arrangements in later life. Discussion. With the continuity in the gendered division of domestic labor in later life, older women in Korea, and other gendered Asian countries, may suffer from work-family conflict as their labor force participation increases.

The Employment Effects of Global Value Chains

ABSTRACTDue to advances of information, communication, and technology and reductions in trade barriers, countries are increasingly deeply engaged in global value chains (GVCs). In the article, we theoretically and empirically show that a country’s position in GVCs has significantly positive effects on its employment level and structure. Countries located in a higher position in GVCs induce a larger demand for high-skilled labors and a more perfect employment structure. Empirical results further reveal that the position in GVCs will help improve employment structure in both developed countries and developing countries, and the employment effects of GVCs are statistically larger for capital-intensive industries than for labor-intensive industries. Moreover, by distinguishing international and domestic division of labor, we find that the employment effects of domestic value chains are larger than foreign value chains.

Mental illness, drinking, and the social division and structure of labor in the United States: 2003-2015.

We draw on a relational theoretical perspective to investigate how the social division and structure of labor are associated with serious and moderate mental illness and binge and heavy drinking. The Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the Occupational Information Network were linked to explore how occupation, the productivity-to-pay gap, unemployment, the gendered division of domestic labor, and factor-analytic and theory-derived dimensions of work are related to mental illness and drinking outcomes. Occupations involving manual labor and customer interaction, entertainment, sales, or other service-oriented labor were associated with increased odds of mental illness and drinking outcomes. Looking for work, more hours of housework, and a higher productivity-to-pay gap were associated with increased odds of mental illness. Physical/risky work was associated with binge and heavy drinking and serious mental illness; technical/craft work and automation were associated with binge drinking. Work characterized by higher authority, autonomy, and expertise was associated with lower odds of mental illness and drinking outcomes. Situating work-related risk factors within their material context can help us better understand them as determinants of mental illness and identify appropriate targets for social change.

Paternity Leave and Parental Relationships: Variations by Gender and Mothers' Work Statuses.

This study examines the associations between paternity leave and parents' reports of relationship satisfaction and relationship conflict, and whether the associations vary by parent gender and mothers' work statuses. Paternity leave research in the U.S. has focused on implications for father involvement, but paternity leave may also help to strengthen parental relationships by promoting a more equitable division of domestic labor. Given gender gaps in childcare, the association between paternity leave and parental relationship outcomes may also vary by gender and mothers' work statuses. The sample consists of 4,700 couples (i.e., parent dyads) from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort. Multilevel models are used to assess the associations between paternity leave and both relationship satisfaction and conflict, and whether these associations vary by gender and mothers' work statuses. Paternity leave-taking is positively associated with parents' reports of relationship satisfaction, but length of paternity leave is only positively associated with mothers' reports of relationship satisfaction. Also, among mothers who worked prior to the child's birth, paternity leave-taking and length of leave are negatively associated with their reports of relationship conflict. In contrast, among mothers who did not work in paid labor pre-birth, paternity leave is positively associated with mothers' reports of relationship conflict. Paternity leave may have implications for parental relationships (and especially mothers' perceptions of their relationships with fathers).

Intersectional research stories of responsibilising the family for food, feeding and health in the twenty-first century

PurposeLiterature from across the social sciences and research evidence are used to highlight interdisciplinary and intersectional research approaches to food and family. Responsibilisation emerges as an important thematic thread, as family has (compared with the state and corporations) been increasingly made responsible for its members’ health and diet.Design/methodology/approachThree questions are addressed: first, to what extent food is fundamentally social, and integral to family identity, as reflected in the sociology of food; second, how debates about families and food are embedded in global, political and market systems; and third, how food work and caring became constructed as gendered.FindingsInterest in food can be traced back to early explorations of class, political economy, the development of commodity culture and gender relations. Research across the social sciences and humanities draws on concepts that are implicitly sociological. Food production, mortality and dietary patterns are inextricably linked to the economic/social organisation of capitalist societies, including its gender-based divisions of domestic labour. DeVault’s (1991) groundbreaking work reveals the physical and emotional work of providing/feeding families, and highlights both its class and gendered dimensions. Family mealtime practices have come to play a key role in the emotional reinforcement of the idea of the nuclear family.Originality/valueThis study highlights the imperative to take pluri-disciplinary and intersectional approaches to researching food and family. In addition, this paper emphasises that feeding the family is an inherently political, moral, ethical, social and emotional process, frequently associated with gendered constructions.

Les frontières du genre

Résumé Cet article interroge le décalage de normes de genre entre pays d'origine et pays d'installation, expérimenté par des descendantes d'immigrés algériens nées en France, lors de leurs voyages en Algérie. À rebours de discours politiques attribuant aux « cultures d'origine » le sexisme subi par les femmes issues de l'immigration maghrébine, l'enquête ethnographique menée en Algérie analyse, sans les essentialiser, les normes sexuées auxquelles sont confrontées les descendantes d'immigrés sur place. C'est à chaque fois une dimension particulière des rôles sexués (différenciation des attentes en termes de sexualité prénuptiale ; différenciation des formes de sociabilité dans la famille élargie ; différenciation des rôles parentaux dans le couple), articulée avec des trajectoires sociales divergentes, qui vient définir des contraintes spécifiques et les réponses construites par les vacancières pour y faire face. Passer la frontière entre la France et l'Algérie amène les femmes rencontrées à devoir redéfinir aussi bien les limites dans la sexuation des espaces (privés et publics), que les prérogatives identifiées comme féminines ou masculines dans le partage des tâches au sein du couple. L'article se concentre sur les mobilités féminines en vacances, mais il éclaire aussi en contre-point la diversité des mobilités masculines.

Gender divisions of domestic labour and paid domestic services

ABSTRACTThis article investigates the relationship between the sharing of domestic tasks in dual-earner mixed-sex couples and the use of paid domestic services. Using results from a small-scale survey of the domestic outsourcing practices of employees of a large service-sector organisation in the UK, we find that in households: full-time working by women and presence of younger children is positively associated with the use of paid domestic services; there is no association between the gender division of traditionally female domestic tasks carried out within the couple and use of paid services; but in contrast, greater male involvement in traditionally male and traditionally gender-neutral tasks is positively associating with using paid domestic services. These findings tentatively suggest that a new arrangement may be emerging in which some couples address a heavy workload and a desire for a less traditional division of domestic labour by men participating more in close-ended domestic tasks and outsourcing the more time-consuming tasks traditionally undertaken by women to paid-service providers.

Anatomy of a Stalled Revolution: Processes of Reproduction and Change in Russian Women’s Gender Ideologies

Russia’s gender revolution notoriously produced women’s economic empowerment without domestic equality. Although the Soviet state vastly expanded women’s employment, this had little impact on a starkly unequal gender division of domestic labor. Such “stalling” is common, but in Russia its extent and persistence presents a puzzle, requiring us to investigate linkages between macro-level factors and micro-level interactions regarding the gender division of domestic labor. We do this by focusing on gender ideology, an important variable explaining the gender division of domestic labor that bridges the macro level of the gender order and the micro-interactional level. We use longitudinal qualitative data to examine continuity and change in young Russian women’s gender ideologies between 1999 and 2010. Based on an analysis of 115 in-depth interviews from 23 respondents, we identify traditional and egalitarian trajectories and the processes underlying them, showing how the male breadwinner schema and an ideology of women’s independence support traditionalism, while non-traditional breadwinning and interactional support from men facilitate egalitarianism. Our analysis enables us to explain the Soviet gender paradox and distinguish sources of change in the post-Soviet era. Our theoretical contribution is to situate gender ideology in a multilevel framework, the efficacy of which we demonstrate in our empirical analysis.

남편이 은퇴한 부부의 가사노동 참여와 공유 활동이 부부관계와 우울감에 미치는 영향

This study analyzes the impacts of household work participation and shared activities between couples on marital relationship and depression among retired men and women with retired husbands. To investigate this, a survey of 367 married people is conducted on retired men and women with retired husbands. The influencing factors on the marital relationship of retired men are found to be couples’ shared activities, gender role attitudes, and subjective health status. The marital relationship of women with retired husbands is influenced by shared activities by couples, the division of domestic labor, and gender role attitudes. The factors affecting retired men’s depression are shared activities by couples, perceived health status, type of jobs before retirement, and age. Women’s depression is related to household income, shared activities by couples, husbands’ jobs before retirement, subjective health status, and division of household labor.

Change in the gender division of domestic work after mothers or fathers took leave: exploring alternative explanations

ABSTRACTThis study investigates how the durations of childcare leaves taken by mothers and fathers in Germany relate to the gender division of housework and childcare after labour market return. It examines to what extent changes in economic resources because of leave take-up may account for adaptations in the division of domestic work of dual-earner couples. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (1992–2012) on about 800 couples with a first or second birth, we applied OLS regression models with lagged dependent variables. The results suggested that dual-earner couples where mothers took longer leaves experienced a greater shift towards a gender-traditional division of domestic labour after childbirth. Fathers’ leave take-up was associated with a more equal division of family work. Lower relative earnings, e.g. as a result of changes in job-related skills after the leave, did not account for the shift in the gender division of family work.

Resource Bargaining and Gender Display in Housework and Care Work in Modern China

This paper analyses data from the Chinese Women’s Status Survey 2010 to investigate how dual-earning couples allocate routine housework, nonroutine housework, and care work between spouses based on their relative income and working time. Women spend more time on housework and take on a higher amount of routine domestic work (e.g., cooking and cleaning) and care work (e.g., childcare). Men share a higher proportion of nonroutine domestic work (e.g., home repairs). Routine housework is negatively associated with one’s relative contribution to family income and working time. For both men and women living in rural areas, however, relative income forms a curvilinear relationship with routine housework and total housework time. Relative income and working time, however, are poor predictors in the gender division of nonroutine housework. Furthermore, they have more complex patterns of association with care work. The results suggest that gender ideology interacts with resource factors in multiple ways to influence the domestic division of labor in China.

Patriarchal Hierarchy? Gender, Children’s Housework Time, and Family Structure in Post-Reform China

Drawing on data from the 2010 China Family Panel Studies, this research investigates the gendered patterns of the time spent by girls and boys on housework in families with distinct structures, with the presence at home or absence from home of the mother, father, elder/younger sister and brother, and male/female extended family members. The results support the theory of gendered domestic-labor substitution, as children are seen to “substitute” for the lack and benefit from the surplus of domestic labor resulting from the absence/presence of other male and female family members. The results also depict a neopatriarchal hierarchy that regulates the complex (re)production of domestic gender inequalities in the Chinese family. Addressing the intersection between the “stalled” and “uneven” domestic gender revolution and the increasing diversity of family forms in post-reform China, this research underlines the importance of mainstreaming children into research on the gendered division of domestic labor.

Response Thresholds and Demand/Withdraw Communication in Domestic Labor Conflict

ABSTRACTGuided by Alberts, Tracy, and Trethewey’s (2011) integrated theory of the division of domestic labor (ITDDL), this study examines the influence of domestic labor response threshold on demand/withdraw communication in domestic labor conflict. Response threshold represents the point at which a negative stimulus produced by an unperformed task is of sufficient intensity to compel an individual to attend to it. One hundred and fifty-five heterosexual marital dyads (mean length of marriage = 19.98 years) completed an online questionnaire about their household labor conflict and response thresholds. Response thresholds were assessed using a photograph-based measure, and data were analyzed via an actor-partner interdependence model. Consistent with theoretical predictions, a significant actor-threshold-by-partner-threshold-by-sex interaction predicted reported demand/withdraw in domestic labor conflict. Individuals with low or mean response thresholds reported more self-demand/partner-withdraw the higher their partner’s response threshold, and this effect was more pronounced among women than men.

Kadın olmak mı, akademisyen olmak mı? : işte bütün mesele bu

Kadınlık ve erkeklik biyolojik olmaktan çok toplumsal bir üretimin sonucudur. Kadının toplumsal hayattaki konumlanışı, iş hayatı ve ev içi emek konularında bu toplumsal üretimin izlerini görmek mümkündür. Ev içi iş bölümünde kadın aleyhine işleyen yapı kadının iş hayatını da etkilemektedir. Bu bağlamda akademide kadının deneyimlediği cinsiyete dayalı baskılar, çalışmamın konusunu oluşturmaktadır. Kadının akademi yaşamında genelde cinsiyet ve özelde ise anneliği üzerinden yaşadığı rol çatışmalarını ortaya koymak bu çalışmanın temel amacıdır. Bu amaca ulaşmak için Walby’nin patriyarka ve Acker’ın cinsiyetlendirilmiş kurum kuramıyla ele aldım. Seküler bir şehrin köklü bir üniversitesi olan Ege Üniversitesi, mesleki aidiyetimin geliştiği ve kadınlık deneyimlerimin şekillendiği Edebiyat Fakültesi’nin çeşitli bölümlerinden yedi kadın akademisyenle derinlemesine görüşme yaptım. Onların akademik kariyeri boyunca cinsiyete dayalı deneyimlerini feminist metodolojiye uygun olarak betimsel analize tabi tuttum. Kadının, akademiye giriş, akademik kariyer, evlilik ve çocuk sahibi olma süreçlerinde görece demokratik olması beklenen akademide dahi eril tahakkümle karşılaştıkları ortaya çıkmıştır

Balancing family work and paid work: gender-based equality in the new democratic family

For most parents, life is no longer a matter of being a parent or a worker--it's both. The traditional gender-based family model was based on role specialisation whereby mothers focussed on family work while fathers were responsible for generating the income to support the family. While mothers were excused from earning an income, fathers were largely excused from day-to-day family caring obligations. But the emergence of the democratic family means that roles are not meant to be ascribed simply because of gender but are to be negotiated and shared. At the level of ideology at least, mothers are encouraged to participate in the public world of paid work and fathers are to participate more in the private world of family caring. While this new deal of gender equality is widely accepted in theory we have not been so successful in working out how to live the new deal. Both mothers and fathers have largely been expected to add responsibilities and work to their already crowded lives. Numerous studies have demonstrated that simply doing two full-time jobs (parenting and waged work) is extraordinarily difficult for any individual and results in considerable stress and can result in degraded parenting and degraded relationships. The demands for an individual in doing both roles has been shown to be particularly demanding on mothers who, despite taking on paid work, continue to do the lion's share of the domestic work. The experience of the competing demands of family and of employment is not uniform. Many factors shape the experience. The workplace itself, the structure of the immediate family (partnered, number of children, age of children), the availability of supports from one's wider family and friends, the availability of childcare and many other considerations all contribute to the experience of tensions between work and family and the capacity to manage these tensions. The paper by Losoncz and Bortolotto (2009) provides a way of summarising the different types of experiences of mothers. Using nationally representative data they identify six broad ways in which mothers experience the need to manage both work and family lives. They describe the range of types including those who manage both roles well through to those who struggle rather unsuccessfully. Their research draws attention to both the variety of experiences and some of the factors tied to these experiences. As such it provides the basis for further thinking about how those who struggle with the balancing act might be helped to manage better. Men and women have experimented with many ways both to parent and hold down a paid job. Many of these approaches involve mothers and fathers sharing the domestic load more evenly. The theory sounds great. As mothers generate an increasing share of the responsibility for earning the family income so fathers are to play a larger role in domestic work and family care. But ample research has demonstrated that mothers who hold down even full-time jobs continue to be responsible for the larger part of these family responsibilities. Many governments have or are considering ways to encourage fathers to play a larger part in domestic and family caring responsibilities. Increasingly fathers of newborn children have access to either paid or unpaid leave as a means of both supporting the mother but to get fathers involved in daily family activities from the time their child is born. Sweden is frequently looked to as being at the leading edge of policies and practices to promote gender equality and sharing in parenting roles by both parents. Thomas and Hildingsson's (2009) paper on the domestic division of labour between parents of newborn children provides insight into the situation in a country that is at the leading edge of policies to promote greater gender equality. It is sobering to learn that despite enlightened paternity leave policies that considerable evidence of gender inequity in relation to domestic work and childcare persists despite enlightened policies. …

How Does Foreign Direct Investment Affect China's Division of Labor in National Value Chain?

The history of economic development shows that late movers, especially developing countries with broad domestic market space, can fully promote domestic division of labor to advance economic development. China, the biggest developing country, has rich natural resources and broad domestic market. More importantly, there are significant differences in inter-regional development modes and development levels, being good for the development of domestic specialized division of labor. However, it is the major experience, arising from China's rapid economic growth since the reform and opening-up, namely to make the best use of cost advantages and preferential policies, and enthusiastically participate in global value chain so as to improve resource allocation efficiency and promote domestic industrial upgrading. Thus, it leads to an important proposition worthy of discussion, namely as for the development of big countries, how their embeddedness in global value chain affects their domestic specialized division of labor, and especially how constant foreign direct investment affects the construction of China's national value chain.This paper decomposes the regional value added in division of labor in national value chain and establishes a quantitative analysis framework of division of labor in national value chain. Through the matching between Chinese inter-provincial input-output tables and China customs database, we analyze the effect of FDI on division of labor in national value chain through an empirical model based on consideration of the differences of FDI orientation.This paper arrives at the results as follows:firstly, FDI and its market-oriented behavior hinder the construction of national value chain, and the MA secondly, as for the heterogeneity of the effect of FDI on division of labor in national value chain, more coastal areas are incorporated in division of labor in global value chain dominated by MNCs, and their national value chain embeddedness is lower; similarly, FDI has produced a greater substitution effect in the electromechanical manufacturing departments with higher technical complexity and more roundabout production which have relatively lower division of labor in national value chain; thirdly, inflow and M&A of FDI have taken more impacts on the upstream link of national value chain, and cut off domestic forward linkage of its advanced technology, marketing channels, intermediate output and other forms to a large extent.This paper provides useful implications and policy suggestions as follows:firstly, the goal orientation of the use of foreign capital should be further adjusted. Besides focusing on the scale of FDI, product value added, employment proportion, etc., we should pay more attention to structural indexes. It means that we should place more emphasis on the national risks resulting from foreign investment.Secondly, more attention should be paid to the growth of Chinese-funded enterprises, especially private-owned enterprises. More financing channels and investment opportunities should be given to private-owned enterprises by perfecting the market mechanism, creating fair competition environment, strengthening public services and formulating proper preferential policies.Thirdly, more attention should be paid to optimal allocation of domestic resources, the recombination of resource factors should be quickened, and domestic specialized division of labor should be coordinated.Fourthly, more attention should be paid to the cultivation of domestic market and the concepts of emphasizing export but ignoring domestic and fragmented should be changed thoroughly. All kinds of specialized markets where domestic sales and foreign trade are well-combined and the platform economy which faces domestic market and integrates the production and circulation links of raw material supply should be vigorously developed, so as to promote the formation and development of unified domestic market.The contribution of this paper lies in that:firstly, this paper establishes a quantitative analysis framework of national value chain based on inter-provincial input-output, to portray national value chain embeddedness of industrial sectors at provincial level. Secondly, we build an econometric model taking FDI orientation and differences in value chain links of FDI into account, analyze the influence of FDI on China's national value chain embeddedness by using the provincial industry data. Thirdly, through the matching between Chinese inter-provincial input-output tables and China customs database, we describe FDI at the provincial level in detail.

Division of domestic labour and lowest-low fertility in South Korea

One explanation offered for very low fertility has been the gap between improvements in women’s socioeconomic status outside the home and gender inequality in the home. The related empirical evidence is lacking for East Asian countries, where women may fac

The Feminization of Body Work

This article explores the relationship between ‘body work’ and gender, asking why paid work involving the physical touch and manipulation of others' bodies is largely performed by women. It argues that the feminization of body work is not simply explicable as ‘nurturance’, nor as the continuation of a pre‐existing domestic division of labour. Rather, feminization resolves dilemmas that arise when intimate touch is refigured as paid labour. These ‘body work dilemmas’ are rooted in the material nature of body work. They are both cultural (related to the meaning of inter‐corporeality) and organizational (related to the spatial, temporal and labour process constraints of work on bodies). Two sectors are explored as exemplars: hairdressing and care work. Synthesizing UK quantitative data and existing research, the article traces similarities and differences in the composition of these sectors and in how gender both responds to and re‐entrenches the cultural and organizational body work dilemmas identified.