Share Of Housework Research Articles

Interactions among gender norms: Evidence from US couples

AbstractA considerable body of work has shown that motherhood is accompanied by a reduction in labor market participation and hours of market work, while more recent findings indicate that women who earn more than their husbands tend to subsequently take actions that reduce their market income. Both patterns of behavior have been interpreted as women trying to conform to child‐rearing norms and to the prescription that the husband should be the main breadwinner. In this paper, we use panel data for US couples to re‐examine women's behavior when they become mothers and when they are the main breadwinner. We start by asking whether the arrival of a child affects women who are the main breadwinner and those who are not in the same way, and then turn to how mothers and childless women react when they are the main breadwinner. Our results are consistent with the breadwinner norm only affecting mothers, suggesting that the salience of gender norms may depend on the household's context, notably on whether or not children are present. Concerning the arrival of a child, we find that although the labor supply of women who earn more than their husbands initially responds to motherhood less than that of secondary earners, the two groups converge after 10 years. Moreover, women in the former category exhibit a disproportionately large increase in the share of housework they perform after becoming mothers. The latter results suggest that the presence of children pushes women to seek to compensate breaking a norm by adhering to another one.

Housework sharing among older couples: explaining the gendered division of domestic labour in older age in South Korea

ABSTRACT Our study investigates the relationship between family models and housework division among older couples. Using the 2019 Korean Time Use Survey, we analysed wives’ share of housework in four family models—dual-earner, traditional (husband-breadwinner), wife-breadwinner, and retired (non-employed) couples—in which at least one partner was aged 65 or above (N = 1,564). Results show that although wives’ housework share varies across the four family models, unequal distribution of housework persists in older age, with wives shouldering over 70 per cent of the total housework regardless of the family model. Wives’ housework share in wife-breadwinner couples was significantly lower than that among dual earners. We also found that economic resources, particularly income, and gender ideology play a limited role in explaining the division of housework among older couples. However, health played a crucial role, with wives and husbands doing more housework when their partners reported poor health.

Did Descriptive and Prescriptive Norms About Gender Equality at Home Change During the COVID-19 Pandemic? A Cross-National Investigation.

Using data from 15 countries, this article investigates whether descriptive and prescriptive gender norms concerning housework and child care (domestic work) changed after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Results of a total of 8,343 participants (M = 19.95, SD = 1.68) from two comparable student samples suggest that descriptive norms about unpaid domestic work have been affected by the pandemic, with individuals seeing mothers' relative to fathers' share of housework and child care as even larger. Moderation analyses revealed that the effect of the pandemic on descriptive norms about child care decreased with countries' increasing levels of gender equality; countries with stronger gender inequality showed a larger difference between pre- and post-pandemic. This study documents a shift in descriptive norms and discusses implications for gender equality-emphasizing the importance of addressing the additional challenges that mothers face during health-related crises.

Opportunity or Exploitation? A Longitudinal Dyadic Analysis of Flexible Working Arrangements and Gender Household Labor Inequality

Abstract It has been extensively debated over whether the rise of flexible working arrangements (FWAs) may be an “opportunity” for a more egalitarian gender division of household labor or reinforce the “exploitation” of women in the traditional gender division. Drawing on a linked-lives perspective, this study contributes to the literature by using longitudinal couple-level dyadic data in the UK (2010–2020) to examine how couple-level arrangements of flexible working affect within-couple inequality in time and different types of household labor. The results show that among heterosexual couples, women’s use of FWAs significantly intensifies their disproportionate share of housework and maintains their heavy childcare burden regardless of whether their husbands use FWAs. In contrast, men’s use of FWAs does not change the unequal gendered division of housework and childcare, even when their wives do not use any FWAs. These patterns of intensified gender inequalities are more pronounced in routine housework tasks (e.g., cooking, washing, and cleaning), and among the reduced hours and teleworking arrangements. Overall, rather than providing an “opportunity” for a more egalitarian division of household labor, the use of FWAs maintains or even exacerbates the “exploitation” of women under the existing traditional gender norms.

Born or not: A moderated mediation model of the relationship between work-family conflict and female employees' wellbeing based on fertility intention during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The previous academic research on work-family conflict mainly focused on the relevant elements in the work field. This study concludes that elements of the family domain have a significant impact on the relationship between work-family conflict and employee wellbeing. Female employees' perceptions of wellbeing largely depend on their willingness to have children when they take on family roles. During COVID-19, employees had more time to fulfill both work and family roles in the family sphere due to the epidemic blockade, the contribution of the female employee's significant other (husband) in family matters had a significant impact on Fertility intention. This study using SPSS 24.0 AMOS 20.0 and M plus 7.4 statistical analysis tools to test the proposed hypotheses. In the paired data of 412 working female employees and husbands of Chinese dual-earner families with different occupational backgrounds, hypothesis testing results support that female employees' work → family conflict is negatively related to female employees' fertility intentions, and female employees' fertility intentions are positively related to wellbeing; female employees' family → work conflict is negatively related to female employees' wellbeing; husband's flexible work stress is negatively related to husband's share of housework; husband's share of housework moderated the front, rear and overall mediating effects by the fertility intention. When formulating policies, the managers should consider not only the direct effects of policies, but also the indirect effects that policies may have on other family members of employees. Managers should develop management policies during an epidemic that are more responsive to the actual needs of employees during an epidemic. The management of female employees should give due consideration to the family status of female employees and the enterprises should recognize the importance of childcare for female employees.

Culture, children and couple gender inequality

This paper examines how culture impacts within-couple gender inequality. Exploiting the setting of Germany’s division and reunification, I compare child penalties of East Germans who were socialised in a more gender egalitarian culture to West Germans socialised in a gender-traditional culture. Using a household panel, I show that the long-run child penalty on the female income share is 23.9 percentage points for West German couples, compared to 12.9 for East German couples. The arrival of children also leads to a greater increase in the female share of housework and child care for West Germans. I add to the main findings by using time-use diary data from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and reunified Germany, which provides a rare insight into gender inequality in the GDR and allows me to compare the effect of having children in the GDR to the effects in East and West Germany after reunification. Lastly, I show that attitudes towards maternal employment are more egalitarian among East Germans, but that the arrival of children leads to more traditional attitudes for both East and West Germans. The findings confirm that socialisation has a strong impact on child penalties and that family policies may have an impact on gender inequality through social learning in the long run.

Is Paid Inflexible Work Better than Unpaid Housework for Women’s Mental Health? The Moderating Role of Parenthood

Despite women’s increased participation in the labor market over the last several decades, many women still perform a disproportionate share of housework, and lack the support of flexible working arrangements. Thus, women are facing a trade-off between doing paid inflexible work and doing unpaid housework, both of which have negative impacts on their mental health. However, the effects of work flexibility and unpaid housework are rarely examined together. This study aims to compare the effects of paid inflexible work and unpaid housework on women’s mental health. It also examines whether parenthood affects the mental health impacts of different employment and economic statuses on women. This study applies nationally representative longitudinal data from the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study (2010–2020, N = 23,552), and uses two-way fixed effects models to process this data. The results show that women who have paid inflexible work have significantly better mental health than those who do only unpaid housework. This pattern is consistent for women who lack different types of flexible work arrangements. Moreover, the mental health benefits of inflexible working over unpaid housework are particularly pronounced for women without dependent children. Paid work, even paid inflexible work, matters for women’s mental health, especially women without children. Future research needs to incorporate various employment and economic statuses into one theoretical framework to examine women’s mental health and further investigate the role of parenthood in moderating the health effects of employment and economic status.

Gendered share of housework and the COVID-19 pandemic: Examining self-ratings and speculation of others in Germany, India, Nigeria, and South Africa.

This cross‐sectional study examined gender differences between male‐ and female‐typed housework during the early COVID‐19 lockdowns in 2020. Participants in Germany, India, Nigeria, and South Africa (N = 823) rated their housework share before and during the lockdown, then speculated about the division of housework performed by men and women in general, before and post‐lockdown. Women spent more time on female‐typed tasks and men (in Nigeria and South Africa) on male‐typed tasks before and during the lockdown. Irrespective of participants’ gender, they speculated that men's and women's housework was more pronounced post‐lockdown than before, but we only found gender differences in South Africa and India. Gender role ideology (GRI) moderated the gender‒housework relationship in Germany, but gender did not moderate the paid work hours and housework relationship in any country. Our findings suggest that gendered housework persisted in these countries and raises concerns that this pattern is likely to continue post‐lockdown.

Telling a different story: disparities in perceived fairness of housework division among East Asian men

ABSTRACT Previous research on gender relations has overlooked the similarities and differences among East Asian societies. To fill this gap, this study investigated the association among men’s gender-role attitudes, the actual share of housework, and perceptions of fairness in housework division, and how it differs across four East Asian societies. Using data from the 2012 International Social Survey Programme, the results demonstrated that Japanese and Taiwanese men had more egalitarian attitudes than mainland Chinese and South Koreans, while mainland Chinese men did more housework. Korean men held the most traditional gender-role attitudes and were least likely to feel they did less than their fair share. The paper concludes with implications for the gender revolution, suggesting policies should promote men’s involvement in the family besides helping mothers balance work and family.

Visualizing Racial-Ethnic Differences in the Division of Housework among Different-Sex Couples in the United States.

Recent research shows important racial/ethnic differences in how individuals spend time in housework. Yet our understanding of how the racial/ethnic makeup of couples shapes gender equality in the division of housework remains limited. The authors use couple-level data from the 2017-2019 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to visually illustrate how each partner's race/ethnicity and their combination are associated with the gender division of housework among Black, Hispanic, and white individuals. The results show significant heterogeneity in the share of housework and total housework hours among racial/ethnic groups, underscoring the need for a couple-level understanding of how the racial/ethnic makeup of couples may shape the gender division of housework.

Home, sweet home? The impact of working from home on the division of unpaid work during the COVID-19 lockdown.

A lockdown implies a shift from the public to the private sphere, and from market to non-market production, thereby increasing the volume of unpaid work. Already before the pandemic, unpaid work was disproportionately borne by women. This paper studies the effect of working from home for pay (WFH), due to a lockdown, on the change in the division of housework and childcare within couple households. While previous studies on the effect of WFH on the reconciliation of work and family life and the division of labour within the household suffered from selection bias, we are able to identify this effect by drawing upon the shock of the first COVID-19 lockdown in Austria. The corresponding legal measures left little choice over WFH. In any case, WFH is exogenous, conditional on a small set of individual and household characteristics we control for. We employ data from a survey on the gendered aspects of the lockdown. The dataset includes detailed information on time use during the lockdown and on the quality and experience of WFH. Uniquely, this survey data also includes information on the division, and not only magnitude, of unpaid work within households. Austria is an interesting case in this respect as it is characterized by very conservative gender norms. The results reveal that the probability of men taking on a larger share of housework increases if men are WFH alone or together with their female partner. By contrast, the involvement of men in childcare increased only in the event that the female partner was not able to WFH. Overall, the burden of childcare, and particularly homeschooling, was disproportionately borne by women.

Women’s pre-marriage income and the division of household labour

ABSTRACT This study investigates the effects of women’s economic resources on the division of household labour by employing pre-marriage income as a proxy for resources, rather than post-marriage income. Post-marriage income has been substantially used in the literature; however, it would be the consequence rather than the cause of spousal labour division. Since many married women reduce their working hours to focus on household tasks and their income decreases after marriage, the reverse causality could overestimate the economic power effect on housework allocation. Based on pre-marriage income data of South Korean households, the present study shows that women’s high relative income does not significantly decrease their time and share of housework. Furthermore, wives’ economic superiority after marriage over the husbands seems to increase their household labour because the wives intend to restore gender identity. In conclusion, traditional gender norms have a greater influence on the division of housework than economic efficiency. Therefore, policy efforts must encourage couples to share their housework equally, such as gender-neutral education and paternity protection system.

Gender Norms and Household Labor: Time Use in the Context of Social Class Differentiation in Transitional China

This paper studies the historical evolution of China’s gender relations through the lens of housework time allocation. In particular, we highlight the role played by social class and income. Drawing upon data from the Chinese Health and Nutrition Survey, we find that during the period 1991–2011, being a peasant or earning less than the spouse was increasingly associated with a higher share of housework. The market process appears to have indirectly improved the social status of women (most likely rural women) married to peasant husbands as measured by the former’s declining housework share. Such changes, however, have not challenged traditional patriarchal norms in the countryside and have even facilitated the rise of a new market-based patriarchy. Policy makers should empower women by tackling the different faces of patriarchy as a whole. JEL Classification: B51, J16, P16

Home, Sweet Home? The Impact of Working from Home on the Division of Unpaid Work during the COVID-19 Lockdown

A lockdown implies a shift from the public to the private sphere, and from market to non-market production, thereby increasing the volume of unpaid work. Already before the pandemic, unpaid work was disproportionately borne by women. This paper studies the effect of working from home for pay (WFH), due to a lockdown, on the change in the division of housework and childcare within couple households. While previous studies on the effect of WFH on the reconciliation of work and family life and the division of labour within the household suffered from selection bias, we are able to identify this effect by drawing upon the shock of the first COVID-19 lockdown in Austria. The corresponding legal measures left little choice over WFH. In any case, WFH is exogenous, conditional on a small set of individual and household characteristics we control for. We employ data from a survey on the gendered aspects of the lockdown. The dataset includes detailed information on time use during the lockdown and on the quality and experience of WFH. Uniquely, this survey data also includes information on the division, and not only magnitude, of unpaid work within households. Austria is an interesting case in this respect as it is characterized by very conservative gender norms. The results reveal that the probability of men taking on a larger share of housework increases if men are WFH alone or together with their female partner. By contrast, the involvement of men in childcare increased only in the event that the female partner was not able to WFH. Overall, the burden of childcare, and particularly homeschooling, was disproportionately borne by women.

It’s getting late today, please do the laundry: The influence of long-distance commuting on the division of domestic labor

The study examines the effect of long-distance commuting on the division of domestic labor in heterosexual couples. A long journey to work can affect other areas of life. Commuters often have lower life satisfaction and their intimate relationships may be impaired by mental stress. When looking at domestic labor the question arises of who is in charge of managing the household and childcare. Do women still adopt the “lion’s share of housework” or take over the “second shift” if they spend part of the day on long commutes to work and back home? A long commute is defined as a journey to work of at least 45 minutes, daily or several times a week. We present the results of pooled regression analysis and fixed effects regressions conducted on data from the German Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics (pairfam) for the years 2013, 2015, and 2016. The pooled analysis suggests a moderate association between a woman’s long commute and her partner’s engagement in housework and childcare, especially when she commutes daily. Instead of living ‘reversed roles’, the partners share such tasks. However, when the association between a woman’s long commute and her partner’s engagement in childcare is estimated exclusively with fixed regression, it remains significant. If the man is a long-distance commuter, most often his partner is solely responsible for all household tasks. Relative labor market position and income distribution within the couples, as well as adherence to gender roles explain the effects of long-distance commuting on labor division.

The role of culture in the gendered division of domestic labor: Evidence from migrant populations in Europe

An attractive explanation of the persistence of gender inequality in the division of domestic labor hinges on the role of culture. However, it is difficult to demonstrate the impact of cultural factors (e.g. social norms), as they are confounded with other institutional factors (e.g. social policies). This article deals with this issue by applying the emerging ‘epidemiological approach’ which focuses on international migrants as individuals who bring cultures differing from that prevailing in the national contexts in which they live. The study analyzes the gender division of housework of first- and second-generation immigrants living in countries covered by the second and fifth round of the European Social Survey. Applying cross-classified multilevel models and using several indicators of gender culture at both origin and destination, it is found that the female share of housework increases in couples when the man or the woman comes from a gender-traditional cultural background. The effect of culture is homogenous across destination countries and only partly explained by parental background. However, it tends to disappear among second generations.

Program Aims to Address Gender Inequities by Empowering Women Physicians

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article ProfessionalFull AccessProgram Aims to Address Gender Inequities by Empowering Women PhysiciansKatie O'ConnorKatie O'ConnorSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:28 May 2020https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.pn.2020.5b2AbstractThree psychiatrists participated in the Women’s Wellness Through Equity and Leadership Program, a project meant to challenge inequities and provide women physicians with mentoring and leadership skills.The three APA members who participated in the Women’s Wellness Through Equity and Leadership (WEL) Program described the program’s influence on them in a simple term: Life changing.Led by six health care organizations, the WEL Program’s goal is to provide early to mid-career women physicians with networking and education to build leadership skills, address equity-related issues, and implement strategies for wellness.“Training and supporting the next generation of women leaders is an investment that will shape and enhance the delivery of care in years to come.”—Theresa Miskimen, M.D.APA’s three participants, Xenia Johnson Bhembe, M.D., Simha Ravven, M.D., and Nicole Christian-Brathwaite, M.D., completed the program earlier this year. The program’s leadership is pursuing new grant funding to expand it and reach more women.The partner organizations are, in addition to APA, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Physicians, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Hospital Association. Each organization identified three women physicians to participate in webinars and meetings over 18 months.“The impetus behind the program was to take an active role in changing the culture of medicine for women by addressing various issues facing women physicians such as salary inequities, work-life imbalance, and discrimination,” Theresa Miskimen, M.D., APA’s representative on the WEL Program’s Steering Committee, said in an email.Miskimen is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and medical director at Hunterdon Medical Behavioral Health in Flemington, N.J. She served as mentor to APA’s participants.Tackling some of the inequities women face, including gender norms, implicit bias, and other cultural forces, requires a shift in societal focus, Miskimen said. “We are talking about a diligent, long-term approach to fully change that culture,” she said. “Ultimately the physicians who participated in this project are in a unique position to develop into change agents in the coming years.”“Even though women work just as hard, sometimes twice as hard, as men, they’re often made to feel they don’t belong in some roles.”—Nicole Christian-Brathwaite, M.D.“In residency, we’re not necessarily taught about the challenges of being a woman in leadership,” said Christian-Brathwaite, a child and adolescent and adult psychiatrist in Boston and CEO of the Well Minds Consulting Company. The WEL participants wrote what they referred to as their “indelible marks,” statements that encompassed what the participants wanted for themselves and their careers and how they wanted to use their skill sets to support their communities.“I had these ideas in my head, but I never had the opportunity to put them on paper and explore my strengths and limitations,” Christian-Brathwaite said.She had considered moving into private practice and starting a consulting company so she could spend time working with her community, and the program helped her cut through her doubts and pursue her goal.Ravven, an assistant clinical professor in psychiatry in the Law and Psychiatry Division at the Yale University School of Medicine, said one of the most powerful aspects of the WEL Program is getting to see her colleagues take on big projects and leadership roles. She is now the president-elect of the Vermont Medical Society.Women are generally responsible for a greater share of housework and child care than their male partners, Ravven pointed out. “A lot of us struggle balancing our family lives and clinical responsibilities. Taking on leadership roles on top of that feels daunting. I think many of our institutions, academic and otherwise, are just beginning to grapple with bias and structural sexism.”Johnson Bhembe is an assistant professor of psychiatry and director of community minority affairs at the Cambridge Health Alliance. Before she started WEL, she had already launched a project in Boston aimed at exploring the impact of internalized racism on black Americans and how internalizing racist oppression prevents them from reaching their full potential. Through the WEL program, she began to envision her project on a much bigger scale.“WEL gave me concrete ideas and strategies to develop my professional identity, but it also helped me grow and see how I might influence the discipline of medicine through my project,” she said.The project, called Race Recovery, is still going strong in Boston, and Johnson Bhembe is now working on a national survey.“A program like this changes your life,” Johnson Bhembe said of WEL. “It gives you a perspective on your contribution and your purpose in medicine that you may not have had before. It’s important that women’s ideas are heard.” ■ ISSUES NewArchived

Doing and undoing gender in male carer/female breadwinner families

ABSTRACT This study aimed to explore the allocation of family work among male carer/female breadwinner couples in comparison to traditional couples, in an attempt to identify the most change-resistant aspects of gendered family roles. A sample of 236 parents with children from birth to 5 years old completed extensive questionnaires about their daily routines and allocation of tasks. As hypothesised, primary caregiving fathers and mothers performed a similar share of housework and physical childcare tasks and were more involved in these forms of family work than breadwinning fathers and mothers. Also as hypothesised, primary caregiving mothers assumed a greater share of the emotional care and overall responsibility for childcare than primary caregiving fathers. That is, whereas primary caregiving mothers carried out most of the emotional care and responsibility for childcare with very little involvement of the breadwinning fathers, among role-reversed couples emotional care and responsibility were shared more equally. These findings suggest that overall, role-reversed couples ‘undo’ gender by performing tasks according to their family role rather than prescriptive gender norms. The results further support the distinction between the more malleable forms of family work and the most change-resistant aspects of gendered parenting.

Paternal Part‐Time Employment and Fathers' Long‐Term Involvement in Child Care and Housework

AbstractObjectiveThis study examines whether paternal part‐time employment is related to greater involvement by fathers in child care and housework, both while fathers are working part‐time and after they return to full‐time employment.BackgroundThe study draws on four strands of theory—time availability, bargaining, gender ideology, and gender construction. It studies couples' division of labor in Germany, where policies increasingly support a dual‐earner, dual‐carer model.MethodThe study uses data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel from 1991 to 2015 on employed adult fathers living together with at least one child younger than age 17 and the mother. The analytic sample comprises 51,230 observations on 8,915 fathers. Fixed effects regression techniques are used to estimate the effect of (previous) part‐time employment on fathers' child‐care hours, housework hours, and share of child care and housework.ResultsFathers did more child care and housework while they worked part time. Yet, most fathers reverted to previous levels of involvement after returning to full‐time work. The only exception was fathers with partners in full‐time employment, who spent more time doing child care and took on a greater share of housework after part‐time employment than before.ConclusionThe findings are largely consistent with the time availability perspective, although the results for fathers with full‐time employed partners indicate that the relative resources and gender ideology perspectives have some explanatory power as well.

Foreign Domestic Helpers Hiring and Women’s Labor Supply in Hong Kong

Based on the data from Hong Kong Panel Study of Social Dynamics (HKPSSD), this article investigates the effect of hiring foreign domestic helpers (FDH) on married women’s labor supply in Hong Kong. The results show, hiring FDHs promotes female’s labor force participation in Hong Kong, increases the amount of time they spend on paid work, and reduces their share of housework. Further analysis suggests that the effects of hiring helpers vary substantially across different socioeconomic groups. The positive effect of hiring FDHs on work hours is the greatest among those who hold an upper-secondary education, live in subsidized housing, and are married to men who earn a relatively low income. These women work longer hours to meet their family’s ends. For married women of higher socioeconomic status, the effect of FDHs hiring on work time is insignificant, suggesting that their relief from housework contributes not to their market work but rather to the support for a more leisurely lifestyle.