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.     

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.     

Housework share between partners: Experimental evidence on gender-specific preferences

This paper uses a novel vignette-based experimental design to investigate the reasons underlying the gendered division of housework. We are particularly interested in the role of gender-specific preferences: are there differences in the utility that men and women derive from housework, and might these be responsible for the fact that women continue to do more housework than men? It is difficult to address these questions with conventional survey data, because of inherent problems with endogeneity and ex-post rationalization; our experimental design circumvents these problems. We find remarkably little evidence of any systematic gender differences in preferences, and a general inclination towards an equal distribution of housework; this suggests that the reasons for the gendered division of housework do not derive from gender differences in preferences, and must lie elsewhere.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

2001～2010年妇女社会地位变迁调查：解析一个直辖市样本

前后10年两次调查统计数据表明，随着经济社会的发展，重庆女性健康及保健状况明显改善；女性教育结构有所改善，男女受教育差距逐渐缩小；女性决定个人事务的自主性提高。但数据也显示，女性在业率偏低，两性劳动收入差距较大；女性拥有的财产大大低于男性；妇女参与决策和管理仍面临障碍；性别歧视现象仍不同程度存在，妇女发展环境亟待改善。应倡导男女平等观念，增强女性自我发展意识；多层次制定有利于维护妇女权益的政策法规：从教育着手提升农村妇女发展能力；大力发展公共服务业，减轻妇女家务负担；营造妇女发展的良好环境。     

唐人小说中的妇女性爱:小说家营造的心理态势

唐代妇女性爱生活丰富,且为唐人小说的一大主题。现实中的妇女性爱放荡、混乱,小说以偷情、私奔方式表现出来,没有抹去现实生活的痕迹。唐人小说的特点为,言情而不淫,纵情而不乱,极大地提高了现实生活水平,使文本的表现方式得以升华。这其中包含着小说家们丰富的心理因素。唐代文人多遭门阀婚姻之苦,既有感于世风开放,极力寻求性爱伙伴,又深受传统礼教熏染,要求性爱对方绝对纯真圣洁。于是,现实中妇女性爱放荡、混乱的状况,便被提高到了一个新视点。如此,既满足了文人的性爱生活,又相应解除了其失败婚姻之苦,也不丢面子。此乃纯属小说家营造的性爱心理态势。     

Gendered styles of student-faculty interaction among college students

Scholars have examined gender differences in many areas of college life, but we know little about how men and women may interact differently with faculty—an activity with strong links to student outcomes. Using data from the National Survey of Student Engagement, I investigate whether men and women demonstrate different styles of interaction with faculty. I find that women are more likely than men to engage frequently in instrumental interactions, such as emailing and discussing course logistics with faculty. In contrast, men are more likely than women to have frequent higher order interactions, such as discussing ideas and participating in research. These findings introduce a new typology of student-faculty interaction and contribute to our understanding of gendered pathways through higher education.     

Apron strings of working mothers: Maternal employment and housework in cross-national perspective

This paper asks whether maternal employment has a lasting influence on the division of household labor for married women and men. Employing multi-level models with 2002 ISSP survey data for 31 countries, we test the lagged accommodation hypothesis that a long societal history of maternal employment contributes to more egalitarian household arrangements. Our results find that living in a country with a legacy of high maternal employment is positively associated with housework task-sharing, even controlling for the personal socialization experience of growing up with a mother who worked for pay. In formerly socialist countries, however, there is less gender parity in housework than predicted by the high historical level of maternal employment.     

从甲骨文“男”、“女”二字之构形看男尊女卑之必然

“男”字的甲骨文构形为以力耕于田，所以男子在农耕时代处于物质生产的主导地位，也决定了其社会地位的不断提高；而“女”字的甲骨文构形，乃是女子跪着操持家务的形象，女子退出物质生产领域而以操持家务为职，直接导致了其地位的江河日下，使男尊女卑成为历史的必然。“男”、“女”二字之甲骨文构形是男尊女卑形成的一个活化石。     

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.     

北朝时期荥阳郑氏宗室婚姻的特征与影响

北朝时期,以荥阳郑氏为代表的汉族士族与宗室统治集团结成了巩固的婚姻联盟。郑氏的宗室婚姻主要发生在孝文帝定姓族之后,且不同房支在宗室婚姻中的地位亦不同,另外还有嫁多娶少、不计行辈等特征。郑氏的宗室婚姻对该家族的政治成败、礼法门风皆产生了重要影响。对北朝时期荥阳郑氏宗室婚姻的研究,是深入了解士族社会面貌的一个重要窗口。     

Education, gender, and migration in the context of social change

Although sociologists have identified education as likely determinant of migration, the ways in which education affects migration are unclear and empirical results are disparate. This paper addresses the relationship between educational attainment, enrolment, and migration, focusing on the role of gender and how it changes with evolving social contexts. Using empirical analyses based in Nepal, results indicate that educational attainment has positive effects and enrolment has negative effects on out-migration and including enrolment in the model increases the effect of attainment. In the case of women, with the changing role of gender, increased education and labor force participation, the affect of educational attainment changes drastically over time, from almost no effect, to a strong positive effect. Consideration of enrolment, and the role of gender in education, employment, and marriage may help to explain the disparate results in past research on education and migration.     

Change in prevalence or preference? Trends in educational homogamy in six European countries in a time of educational expansion

This paper analyzes trends in educational homogamy in six European countries (Sweden, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Italy). We use vital statistics on all marriages contracted between 1990 and 2016. Absolute educational homogamy increases in all countries (very moderately in the Czech Republic and Italy), it changes its structure, and the absolute educational hypogamy of women increases. The trends over time and among countries in relative educational homogamy are tested using log-linear and log-multiplicative models. We expand a regression-type layer effect model (the Goodman-Hout model) into a four-way table. The results indicate differing assortative mating by educational categories. Relative homogamy decreases in tertiary education. In lower educational categories, relative homogamy increases. We present the hypothesis that a decrease in relative homogamy in tertiary education is a consequence of the rise of social homogamy. We conceptualize this homogamy balance as a “complementary maintained homogamy.” Because changes in relative educational homogamies are the same in all countries, the cross-country differences remain constant over time. We conceptualize this as a “maintained flux.” The European countries are not in convergence, even though the relative homogamies delineated by educational categories change.     

Gender,status, and psychiatric labels

We examine a key modified labeling theory proposition—that a psychiatric label increases vulnerability to competence-based criticism and rejection—within task- and collectively oriented dyads comprised of same-sex individuals with equivalent education. Drawing on empirical work that approximates these conditions, we expect the proposition to hold only among men. We also expect education, operationalized with college class standing, to moderate the effects of gender by reducing men’s and increasing women’s criticism and rejection. But, we also expect the effect of education to weaken when men work with a psychiatric patient. As predicted, men reject suggestions from teammates with a psychiatric history more frequently than they reject suggestions from other teammates, while women’s resistance to influence is unaffected by their teammate’s psychiatric status. Men also rate psychiatric patient teammates as less powerful but no lower in status than other teammates, while women’s teammate assessments are unaffected by their teammate’s psychiatric status. Also as predicted, education reduces men’s resistance to influence when their teammate has no psychiatric history. Education also increases men’s ratings of their teammate’s power, as predicted, but has no effect on women’s resistance to influence or teammate ratings. We discuss the implications of these findings for the modified labeling theory of mental illness and status characteristics theory.     

Educational inequalities in parental care time: Cross-national evidence from Belgium,Denmark, Spain,and the United Kingdom

This study uses time-diary data for dual-earner couples from Belgium, Denmark, Spain, and the United Kingdom to analyze educational inequalities in parental care time in different national contexts. For mothers, education is significantly associated with parenting involvement only in Spain and the United Kingdom. In Spain these differences are largely explained by inequalities in mothers' time and monetary resources, but not in the United Kingdom, where less-educated mothers disproportionally work in short part-time jobs. For fathers, education is associated with parenting time in Denmark, and particularly in Spain, while the wife's resources substantially drive these associations. On weekends, the educational gradient in parental care time applies only to Spain and the United Kingdom, two countries with particularly large inequalities in parents' opportunities to engage in parenting. The study shows country variations in educational inequalities in parenting, suggesting that socioeconomic resources, especially from mothers, shape important variations in parenting involvement.     

Labor Market and Socioeconomic Effects on Marital Stability

This paper reports an investigation of the effects of socioeconomic and labor market factors on the dissolution of marriages since the mid 1960s. We examine the effects of possible sources of marital disruption, including poor labor market opportunities for young adults; the economic independence and improved labor market opportunities of women; and changes in the labor market roles and expectations of women within marriage. Using the National Longitudinal Surveys of Young Men, Young Women, and Youth, we estimate the effects on marital stability of husbands′ and wives′ levels, differences and changes in educational attainment, income, and annual weeks worked. Our results suggest that average levels of couples′ educational attainment and recent work experiences positively affect marital stability. The degree to which husbands and wives differ on educational attainment and income does not affect marital stability, but the more that wives work relative to their husbands, the greater the chances of disruption. Positive changes in wives′ socioeconomic and labor force characteristics over the course of their marriages increase the odds of marital disruption.     

Gender and venture capital decision-making: The effects of technical background and social capital on entrepreneurial evaluations

Research on gender and workplace decision-making tends to address either supply-side disparities between men’s and women’s human and social capital, or demand-side differences in the status expectations of women and men workers. In addition, this work often relies on causal inferences drawn from empirical data collected on worker characteristics and their workplace outcomes. In this study, we demonstrate how tangible education and work history credentials – typically associated with supply-side characteristics – work in tandem with cultural beliefs about gender to influence the evaluative process that underlies venture capital decisions made in high-growth, high-tech entrepreneurship. Using an experimental design, we simulate funding decisions by venture capitalists (VCs) for men and women entrepreneurs that differ in technical background and the presence of important social ties. We demonstrate the presence of two distinct aspects of VCs’ evaluation: that of the venture and that of the entrepreneur, and find that the gender of the entrepreneur influences evaluations most when the person, rather than the venture, is the target of evaluation. Technical background qualifications moderate the influence of gendered expectations, and women receive more of a payoff than men from having a close contact to the evaluating VC. We discuss the implications for future research on gender and work.