domestic chores in comparative research
The second empirical chapter analyzes the different relative time on do- mestic chores spent by partners. In particular, the scope is to highlight whether the presence of children is associated with a more unequal division of housework in couples living in different institutional settings. Therefore, in this section I review the main findings in the literature on the division of do- mestic chores within households in western countries. In the first paragraph I present a line of research, dating back to the second half of the twenti- eth century, that has focused mainly on individual and household traits to explain the allocation of time to housework. Among these, the presence of children in the household. The second, more recent thread instead focuses on how contextual characteristics can shape individuals’ behavior in the di- vision of domestic work. I review the main findings of both in the following paragraphs and develop the hypotheses accordingly.
1.4.1
Micro-level perspectives
Since the 1960s, when research on the allocation of time to domestic chores began, three theoretical perspectives have emerged to explain what individual traits are associated with the division of household tasks between partners. I draw from these theories to develop four testable hypotheses on the association between individual-level traits and division of domestic chores between partners in European countries.
My first hypothesis is tied to the gendered effect of parenthood on the division of chores. The presence of children has been found to increase the time on housework (Shelton and John 1996). The responsibility for such domestic chores, however, is not gender neutral: parenthood in fact is found to increase the domestic work load especially for women and to strengthen a traditional division of labor. This finding has emerged both in cross-sectional (Craig and Mullan 2010, Dribe and Stanfors 2011), and in longitudinal stud- ies (K¨uhhirt 2011, Schober 2013). While the former case could be the result of a selection effect, in that couples with a traditional division of labor may simply be more likely to have more children, the latter results indicate that even couples who shared chores more equally before having children tend to change their habits when they become parents. In other words, the authors find that the event of having a child is associated in a strong way with the shift towards a gendered division of chores. This might be the case because of the gendered meaning of parenthood per se. On one hand, as Lorber (1986) suggests, women see domestic chores as a form of love and devotion, rather than work; on the other hand, the cultural norms concerning the importance of being a good parent might override the importance of perfectly dividing chores with one’s partner (Craig and Mullan 2011). In other words, mothers may have a hard time bargaining over who has to clean the house when the consequences of a dirty home influence her children and not just herself and her spouse. My first individual level hypothesis therefore states that:
Hypothesis 1: The presence of children in the household is associated with a higher share of women’s housework.
Given that I am concerned with cross-national differences, it is useful to consider how the gendered effect of parenthood could vary by context. As I will discuss in paragraph 1.4.2, there has been much research on whether and which contextual traits are associated with a more or less equal division of chores within households. To investigate this issue, my next hypothesis
regards the mediating effect of the welfare regime on the division of domes- tic chores in the presence of children. In previous sections I have discussed the larger gender-equalizing effort that takes place in the social democratic welfare states, in particular in terms of increasing female labor force partici- pation and of sustaining paternal involvement with children. On the contrary, continental welfare states place a larger emphasis on the preservation of the traditional family, with the complementary roles of male breadwinner and female homemaker. Thus, it is likely that the outcome in terms of gender specialization in the presence of children will vary by context. In particular: Hypothesis 1a: The association between the presence of children and the higher share of women’s housework shall be weakest in the social demo- cratic welfare regime and strongest in countries belonging to the con- tinental, liberal and Mediterranean welfare regime.
Having highlighted my main hypotheses, I move to the historical explana- tions for the time spent on domestic chores by partners. The time availability perspective (Hiller 1984) explains the division of household labor as the result of a rational process, where household tasks are allocated according to the available time of both partners. The main indicators which have been used to measure time constraints are the employment status and the work schedule of the partners, and the presence and number of children in the household. Indeed, research has shown that husbands do more domestic chores if their wives are employed outside the home (Davis and Greenstein 2004). Among others Ross (1987), Presser (1994) and Geist (2005) find that both partners devote more time to domestic chores the more hours they spend at home. Gough and Killewald (2011) show that during unemployment both husbands and wives increase their hours of housework, but women’s increase is twice men’s. On the basis of this, the second hypothesis is:
Hypothesis 2: The greater the time constraints women and men face, the smaller the share of housework they perform.
The second perspective regarding the division of household labor is the relative resources perspective, according to which the division of domestic chores is determined by the level of relative resources each partner brings to the relationship (Blood and Wolfe 1960). Research has in fact found that the smaller the wage gap between husband and wife, the more household tasks
are equally divided (Blair and Lichter 1991, Greenstein 2000) while men’s relative higher income leads women to do more housework (Geist 2005). On the contrary, some studies find that economically dependent husbands do less rather than more housework (Brines 1994, Greenstein 2000, Hook 2006). Scholars have interpreted this as a means of neutralizing gender-deviant be- havior. Gupta (2007), however, shows that in the United States women’s time on housework is related to their own earnings rather than to their part- ners’. Resources have also been operationalized through educational level. Overall, more educated women dedicate less time to household tasks and suf- fer a smaller task segregation. Also, husbands perform more housework when their wives’ education is equal to their own or exceeds it (Blair and Lichter 1991, Greenstein 2000). Furthermore, the higher the husband’s educational level, the more likely is his participation to household tasks (Berardo et al. 1987, Haddad 1994, South and Spitze 1994). Therefore, I hypothesize that: Hypothesis 3: Higher relative resources are associated with a lower share
of housework for both women and men.
Researchers who have deviated from the socioeconomic perspectives have framed the problem in social constructionist terms, introducing the symbolic content of household labor (Ferree 1990, Brines 1994). This view goes under the name of social construction of gender or the gender ideology and argues that gender is a social construction which is created and recreated through the interaction with others. Consequently, gender would determine the division of housework as a result of how men and women display their social roles and “produce gender” (Connell 1985, West and Zimmerman 1987, Hochschild 1989). The underlying idea is that a more or less traditional gender ideology will contribute to shape the division of chores. In fact, traditional women are more likely to consider ‘fair’ an unequal division of chores because it matches with the normative standards they embrace (Lavee and Katz 2002) and men with more traditional gender ideologies do less housework than those who are more modern (Huber and Spitze 1983, Brayfield 1992). Instead, non- traditional women are more sensitive to the unequal share of domestic labor (Braun et al. 2008). It therefore follows that:
Hypothesis 4: Women and men who favor equality in gender roles are ex- pected to share housework more evenly.
1.4.2
Macro-level perspectives
Recent research has attempted pinpointing the contextual traits that are related to the division of domestic chores between women and men. Accord- ing to this line of research, the fact that working, resourceful and gender egalitarian women reduce their share of housework results in an equalization process that goes beyond the individual-level bargaining within the house- hold. This shift from individual to contextual-level happens, in Hook’s (2006) words, because: “as women’s labor force participation affects more men, the bar is set higher when men make social comparisons, creating an across-the- board change in how men “do gender” [. . . ] In contexts where women are more involved in the public sphere, men are more involved in the private sphere, not necessarily because of household bargaining or other household- level processes, but because of societal shifts in gendered behavior” (Hook, 2006, p. 643). To the contrary, women might feel social pressure to perform more than their share of housework when they live in ‘traditional’ contexts (Geist, 2005). Likewise, normative standards may encourage men not to share household chores in order to live up to the male breadwinner model, even if they have non-traditional attitudes (Coleman 1991). This happens because, as Bianchi et al. (2000) argue, women and men internalize society’s prevailing gender ideologies and assume gender specific beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. I test the equalization process with two macro-level traits that have been used in previous literature on the division of housework, namely the presence of women in the workforce and the Gender Empowerment Mea- sure. Previous research has shown that in countries where women are more empowered, the division of chores is more equal (Batalova and Cohen 2002, Fuwa 2004). Knudsen and Waerness (2008), however, find no direct effect of the GEM on the division of domestic chores. The results for female la- bor force participation are also not straightforward. Hook (2006), in fact, finds that men perform more housework in countries where women are over- all present in the labor market. In a successive study, the author also shows that the presence of married women in the work force increases the time that men but not women spend on cooking and on housework (Hook 2010). Treas and Tai (2012) also show that housework is shared more evenly in countries that have a high legacy of maternal employment. This could suggest that female labor force participation has an equalizing effect on the division of housework. Fuwa (2004), however, directly tests this hypothesis and finds no effect of female labor force participation on the division of chores. Following
this work, I develop my last hypothesis.
Hypothesis 5: Greater presence of women in the labor market in particular and in the public sphere in general are expected to be associated with a more equal division of domestic chores between partners.