Gender,justice and work: A distributive approach to perceptions of housework fairness

Most women and men report that the division of domestic labor in their household is fair, despite women undertaking approximately seventy percent of housework. This raises questions about how fairness is evaluated within partnerships. We explore how parenthood and relationship transitions affect perceptions of housework fairness using panel data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey and panel regression models. Our results indicate that net of actual housework divisions, socio-demographic factors, time availability and relative resources, the transition to parenthood increases women’s perceptions of housework fairness immediately following the birth of a child, but decreases them in the long run. Relationship transitions have no independent effects. Our findings suggest that parenthood transitions are associated with changes in women’s identity, cognitive evaluations of fairness and feelings of entitlement, as indicated by distributive justice theory.     

Gender and class housework inequalities in the era of outsourcing hiring domestic work in Spain

Many households regularly outsource unpaid domestic labor by purchasing services and products to help with cleaning, cooking, ironing, and other chores. Despite the prevalence of this practice, scholars know little about how it affects inequalities in the time spent on housework. Drawing on data on 3540 dual-earner households in Spain, this article examines the relationship between hiring domestic work and both the within-household gender gap in housework and the class gap in housework among women. I find that women who hire do about 30 min less housework per day than non-hiring women, but in relation to their partners these women continue to do the same share of housework. Using counterfactual analysis, I find that the absence of paid domestic work is associated with a 20% decline in the class gap in housework among Spanish women.     

Her money, her time: Women’s earnings and their housework hours

Do husbands and wives divide housework on the basis of who makes more money? Much of the recent literature has focused on the effects of individuals’ earnings relative to their partners’ on their housework. By contrast, this paper analyzes the effects of women’s own earnings on the time they spend doing housework in the context of heterosexual couple households. A conservative estimate using the second wave of the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) is that the negative association of women’s housework with their own earnings is two to three times greater than that with their partners’; in the full model, the association with partners’ earnings is not statistically significant. The importance of women’s own earnings in housework models is highlighted by the comparable effect of income on housework among single women. It appears that so far as housework is concerned, women do not benefit greatly from their male partners’ incomes. The finding emphasizes the gender segregation of domestic labor, and underscores the importance of income differences among women in explaining their housework behavior. It shows that the difference between the mean housework hours of the women with the lowest and highest earnings is as large as the difference between the mean housework hours of women and men.     

The state of domestic affairs: Housework,gender and state-level institutional logics

Multi-level cross-national research consistently shows individual housework arrangements are structured by broader contexts of equality. Across this body of research, the United States is treated as a single entity. Yet, individual-level housework time may vary by state-to-state differences in institutional market, family and legislative logics. To test these relationships, we pair individual-level data from the American Time Use Survey (2003–2012; aged 18 to 64 n = 106,190) with three state-level indices – female labor force empowerment, family traditionalism and state government liberalism. For market institutional logics, we find wives and husbands spend more but mothers less time in housework in states where women have more labor market power. For family logics, we find mothers spend more and husbands less time in housework in more traditional states. For legislative logics, we find women and husbands spend more time in housework in more liberal states. Our results highlight the importance of state-to-state institutional logics on individuals' housework time.     

Bringing the Firms into Globalization Research: The Effects of Foreign Investment and Exports on Wages in Mexican Manufacturing Firms

Researchers specializing in organizations and labor markets have paid insufficient attention to the effects that foreign ownership of a firm and its orientation towards export production may have on the wages it pays to its workers. Using information from a nationally-representative sample of manufacturing firms in Mexico, a paradigmatic case of a developing country that is highly integrated into world markets, we find that foreign-owned and export-oriented firms pay considerably more than nationally-owned firms engaged in the production of goods for sale in the domestic market. Second, beyond paying higher wages to their workers, foreign-owned firms also raise the wages paid by domestic firms operating in the same regional labor markets. The wage premium in foreign and export-oriented firms cannot be explained by their size, industry, geographical location, productivity, use of advanced technology, or the sociodemographic composition of their workforce. We find evidence that wages in foreign-owned companies in Mexico are dependent on the country of origin of the capital investment. A greater difference between the industry-specific wages paid in the country of ownership and Mexico is associated with a higher wage premium in Mexican affiliates. Future work should strive to link information from foreign-owned affiliates with their parent companies abroad.     

He said, she said: The gender wage gap according to self and proxy reports in the Current Population Survey

Roughly half the labor force data in the Current Population Survey (CPS) are provided by proxy respondents, and since 1979, men’s reliance on proxies has dropped dramatically while women’s reliance on proxies has increased. Few authors, however, have examined how combining these first-hand and second-hand reports may influence our understanding of long-term economic trends. We exploit the outgoing rotation group structure of the CPS by matching individual records one year apart, and we find that self-reported wages are higher than proxy-reported wages even after controlling for all time invariant characteristics. Furthermore, we find that changes in the use of proxy respondents by men and women since 1979 have made current estimates of the gender wage gap larger than they would have been without changes in reporting status. This suggests that the gender wage gap has closed more than previously estimated. We recommend that researchers combine self and proxy responses with great care, especially when analyzing time trends or making gender comparisons.     

“Making it work: Migration,motherhood and employment in Australia”

The transition into motherhood is often associated with a reduction in women's labor force participation, reinforcing gender employment hierarchies. Our study compares women's employment status and paid work time prior to and following birth among immigrants and native-borns in Australia. We also consider how these outcomes differ by generation status and racial and ethnic background. Australia provides a valuable context to understand these outcomes given its skilled migration policy, racial and ethnic diversity, limited childcare and family leave policies, and high rates of part-time work among mothers. We examine longitudinal data from the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) for women from 2001 to 2016. We find that migrant women show lower employment levels and commensurate work hours than native-borns prior to childbirth. After childbirth, migrant mothers maintain lower employment levels, but higher work hours than native-born mothers. Overall, we find that relative to native-borns, migrant women typically experience a smaller reduction in employment and work hours following childbirth, but some of this is likely due to their lower starting position prior to childbirth. Our findings have implications for skilled immigration policies and highlights the unique work-family pressures facing immigrant and native-born women.     

Power and the gendered division of contraceptive use in Western European couples

Recent research has approached contraceptive use, or “fertility work”, as another household task that is primarily managed by women. Building on the theoretical frameworks of relative resource theory and gender perspectives, this study investigates the association between partners' power (measured as their relative education, division of housework and decision-making) and the choice of male versus female, or no contraception. Data from the Generations and Gender Survey for four Western European countries (Austria, Belgium, France and Germany; 2005–2010) are used to examine the hypotheses with multinomial logistic diagonal reference models. The results show that man's and woman's educational level are equally important predictors for a couple's contraceptive method choice. Furthermore, the findings suggest that households in which the man performs more housework or the woman has more say in decisions are more likely to rely on male methods or female sterilization, rather than on the more commonly used female reversible methods.     

Gender differences in the impact of job mobility on earnings: The role of occupational segregation

In recent years, researchers have begun to explore the extent to which the impact of switching firms (inter-firm mobility) on wages varies between men and women. Using data from the NLSY79 from 1979 to 2012, this paper extends existing research by exploring how occupational segregation and individual level factors contribute to gender differences in the impact of voluntary inter-firm mobility on wages. The paper also examines how patterns vary depending on education level. Findings suggest that men without a college education receive greater wage gains from voluntary inter-firm mobility than similarly educated women although there is no overall gender difference for individuals with a bachelor's degree. The wage returns to voluntary inter-firm mobility for both men and women increase as a function of the male representation in the occupation. For individuals without a college education, the male premium to voluntary inter-firm mobility is largest in highly male dominated occupations. However, women with a bachelor's degree employed in highly male dominated occupations use voluntary inter-firm mobility to narrow the gender wage gap.     

Measuring time use in surveys - Concordance of survey and experience sampling measures

It is still unclear to what extent time allocation retrospectively reported in questionnaires reflects people’s actual behavior. Addressing this research gap, we analyze the congruence of time use information assessed through retrospective questionnaires and through experience sampling methodology. Participants completed standard survey questions on time allocation. In addition, a mobile-phone-based experience sampling technology obtained snapshots of, on average, 54 momentary activities in which respondents participated while pursuing their normal daily routines.Results indicate that the associations between standard survey questions and experience sampling methods are quite substantial for long-lasting and externally structured activities, such as paid work. In contrast, associations between survey and experience sampling methods are somewhat weaker for less externally structured, short-term and infrequent activities, such as errands, housework, and leisure. However, further research is required to elucidate which method (experience sampling method or survey questions) results in more reliable and valid measures for short-term and sporadic activities.     

Housework, market work, and “doing gender” when marital satisfaction declines

When faced with a decline in marital satisfaction, are wives constrained from increasing their labor market work time in part because they “do gender?” One of the predictions of the human capital accumulation hypothesis, which assumes no constraints, is that housewives with little work experience will respond to a decline in marital satisfaction by increasing labor market work time (only). In contrast, the gender display hypothesis predicts that, in settings where the evaluations of marriage and wives’ work performance are closely intertwined, a decline in marital satisfaction among this group of housewives will increase both labor market work and housework—and the increase in housework serves as a constraint on the increase in labor market work. To evaluate these contrasting hypotheses, we analyze a panel survey of women in contemporary Japan. Results from multinomial logit regression models are more consistent with the gender display hypothesis than the human capital accumulation hypothesis. Housewives with relatively little work experience are 11 times more likely to increase the time spent on both labor market work and housework when the satisfaction of their marriage declines than when it does not. No evidence is found that, when marital satisfaction declines, these housewives are statistically significantly more likely to increase labor market work only.     

Gender of the immediate manager and women's wages: The importance of managerial position

One argument for increasing female representation in management is the expectation that female managers will be particularly beneficial for female employees through, e.g., role modeling, mentoring or providing other incentives to enhance female productivity. We explore this issue by analyzing the association between women's wages and the gender of their immediate managers using Swedish matched employee-employer data from 2010. Contrary to the expected positive association, we find that wages are overall 3% lower for female employees with a female instead of male manager. However, dividing the sample by managerial position and controlling for the sorting of employees with respect to, e.g., non-cognitive traits, work tasks, family commitment and establishment gender composition, the negative association is found only for female employees working for lower-level managers, not for women with a manager at the highest rank. One possible explanation could be a difference in decision-making power if lower-level female managers have more limited resources for their subordinates compared to lower-level male managers.     

It takes two: A dyadic model of recruitment to civic activity

Why are some people, but not others, asked to engage in civic activity? Rather than focus on the personal traits of either potential recruits or recruiters for this initial stage of recruitment, we develop and test a theoretical framework that emphasizes the importance of shared relationships and characteristics between those doing the recruiting and those being recruited. Specifically, the nature of interactions, overlapping community and associational space, status and value homophily, and strength and intimacy are assessed to explain differential recruitment among people's closest ties. Furthermore, unlike previous studies, we do so across three different forms of civic activity—blood donation, volunteer work, and political activism—allowing us to identify larger patterns in civic solicitation. Results from multilevel analyses of dyads reorganized from ego-centric data of U.S. adults show that while certain personal traits of egos and alters remain significant, attributes of the dyad are equally, if not more, consequential for explaining variation in who gets asked to participate in civic activity. Importantly, while certain dyadic characteristics—such as romantic partnerships—promote recruitment to all three forms of civic activity, the effects of others—such as sex homophily—are unique to specific forms. Broadly speaking, our results indicate that some types of dyadic characteristics are more powerful than others and that there are important differences in how particular dimensions of social connections shape recruitment efforts across the specific activities of donating blood, volunteering time, and engaging in political activism.     

Housework: Cause and consequence of gender ideology?

Nearly all quantitative studies examining the association between the division of housework and gender ideology have found that gender egalitarianism results in less housework for wives, more for husbands, and more equal sharing of housework by couples. However, a few studies suggest housework has a nontrivial influence on gender ideology. An overreliance on single-direction, single-equation regression models and cross-sectional data has limited past research from making strong claims about the causal relationship between gender ideology and housework. We use data on married couples from Waves 1 and 2 of the National Survey of Families and Households and nonrecursive simultaneous equation models to assess the causal relationship between housework and gender ideology. Results show a mutual and reciprocal relationship between the division of housework and gender ideology for both husbands’ and wives’. Reciprocity is strongest for husbands while for wives the relationship is partially indirect and mediated through their husbands’ gender ideologies.     

Psychological distress of marital and cohabitation breakups

Using data from a large survey, the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), this paper explores the extent to which marital and cohabiting unions differ with respect to the short-term effects of union dissolution on mental health. We compare married individuals who divorced or separated with cohabitors whose first union ended and test the hypothesis that married individuals experience larger negative effects. Results show that initial differences are not statistically significant once the presence of children is controlled for, suggesting that the presence of children is a particularly significant source of increased psychological distress in union dissolutions. However, parenthood does not explain serious psychological distress, which appears to be associated with enduring traits (the personality trait neuroticism).     

Exploring the spatial wage penalty for women: Does it matter where you live?

Inequality between men and women has decreased over the past four decades in the US, but wage inequality among groups of women has increased. As metropolitan women’s earnings grew by 25% over the past four decades, nonmetropolitan women’s earnings only grew by 15%. In the current study we draw on data from the Current Population Survey to analyze the spatial wage gap among women. We explore differences in the spatial wage gap by education, occupation, and industry. Regression models that control for marriage, motherhood, race, education, region, age, and work hours indicate that metropolitan women earn 17% more per hour than nonmetropolitan women. Nonmetropolitan women earn less than metropolitan women who live in central cities and outside central cities. The gap in metropolitan-nonmetropolitan wages is higher for more educated women than for less educated women. The wage gap is only 5% for women without a high school degree, but it is 15% for women with a college degree and 26% for women with an advanced degree. Nonmetropolitan college graduates are overrepresented in lower-paying occupations and industries. Metropolitan college graduates, however, are overrepresented in higher-paying occupations and industries, such as professional services and finance.     

Parenthood and psychological well-being: Clarifying the role of child age and parent-child relationship quality

Although recent scholarship has emphasized the importance of examining the rewards of raising children in understanding variations in psychological consequences of parenthood, empirical research remains focused on the demands of parenthood. Using a sample of parents with children aged 0-22 in the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 6228), this paper examines the association between age of children and parental psychological well-being, focusing on a key element of rewards of parenthood, parental relationship satisfaction with their children, as a mediator of the link. Findings indicate that parents whose oldest child is under age five report higher satisfaction with the relationship with their children, higher self-esteem, higher self-efficacy, and less depression than do parents whose oldest child is school-age or adolescent. When parental satisfaction is taken into account, the differences in self-esteem, self-efficacy, and depression by age of children disappear.     

Educational assortative mating and time use in the home

This study examines the association between individuals' educational assortative mating and time spent on child care and housework. Focus is put on hypogamous couples, or couples in which wives have more education than their husbands. Relative resources and gender revolution frameworks are considered as contexts to explain why hypogamous couples may share their time differently than other couples. A series of ordinary least squares regressions with population and sampling weights are employed using American Time Use Survey data from 2003 to 2018. Three, separate analyses using relative education, gender, and all educational pairings as the independent variables of interest are presented with child care and housework as the dependent variables. The current findings show that men in hypogamous marriages perform about 10 min more of child care per day on average than their peers in hypergamous and homogamous marriages, and that this comes primarily from basic care activities. This accounts for approximately 43% of the difference between men and women in the average amount of time spent on child care. No clear pattern of significance is apparent comparing individuals’ time spent on housework by relative education, suggesting that housework and child care have evolved differently in the context of gendered domestic responsibilities. Men in hypogamous marriages are more egalitarian in their sharing of child care. However, this is only true for couples in which men have at least a high school diploma and women are highly educated.     

Intergenerational relations before and after offspring arrive: A within-person investigation

The birth of a child may re-orientate the relations between adult children and their parents; however, the previous studies on the topic are both scarce and methodologically limited. The current study investigates whether younger adults' entry into parenthood (i.e., the birth of the first child) is associated with increased contact frequency, emotional closeness, intimacy and conflict with their own parents. The participants are from the German Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics, which is a prospective survey of younger adults with six annual follow-up waves between 2009 and 2014 (n = 17,662 person-observations from 4821 persons). Within-person regression with a focus on each individual's variation over time was used to detect changes in intergenerational relations. The contact frequency between daughters and mothers increased after the arrival of their first child. In contrast, the emotional closeness and intimacy between sons and mothers decreased after the birth of their first child. The results are discussed with reference to gender-based differences in intergenerational relations.     

Are motherhood penalties and fatherhood bonuses warranted? Comparing pro-work behaviors and conditions of mothers, fathers, and non-parents

Research has confirmed a motherhood penalty and fatherhood bonus at work. Employers, it appears, regard mothers and fathers differently from one another and differently from non-parents. We have yet to systematically explore whether mothers exhibit fewer pro-work behaviors than fathers and non-parents or whether fathers engage in more of them than mothers and non-parents. This article draws on nationally representative data from full-time employed adults to investigate mother, father, and non-parent differences in work effort, work intensity, job engagement, and four measures of work enhancement from home. Mothers and fathers are similar on five out of seven outcomes tapping pro-work dimensions. When they differ, mothers report greater job engagement and work intensity than fathers. Mothers are no different from non-parents on all outcomes. All findings hold net of individual, job, and family controls. I conclude that reducing workplace gender inequality will require organizational changes that pay explicit attention to workers’ care-giving responsibilities.