The effects of the length of the employed wife's employment day on her time in household work activities were examined for 362 wives in a 1967–68 Syracuse, New York, time‐use study. This research is based on a household time allocation model which assumes employment status and length of employment day are outside the realm of families’choices when making daily time‐use decisions. Incorporation of this assumption permits a theoretically and statistically valid empirical examination of the effects of length of employment day on time in household work for the first time. Employment effects were estimated at five stages in the life cycle by multiple regression using a logistic function. The effects on wives’daily time were negative for all activities except yard and car care, nonphysical family care, and marketing and chauffeuring. Increases in wives’daily nonphysical care time were greater than their decreases in physical care time for all families except those with only preschool age children. The novel results of this research indicate employment status may not be a suitable substitute measure for employment time. The results also cast suspicion on the results of time‐use studies which aggregate employed and nonemployed wives. The results also support the superior performance of nonlinear functions in explaining household time use.
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Jan 1, 1985
Yuko Arayama 
Open Access
