housework sharing among dual-earner french couples : gender inequality remains sophie ponthieux,...
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Housework sharing among dual-earner French Couples : gender inequality remains
Sophie Ponthieux, Amandine SchreiberINSEE, France
Plan Theoretical background and problematic:
What impact of women’s contribution to household’s income on the sharing of housework
Use of time and sharing of housework among French couples of employees
What happens when women earn more than their partner?
Characteristics of these « deviant » couples The impact of the Women’s « economic power »
Plan Theoretical background and problematic Use of time and sharing of work among
French couples of employees What happens when women earn more
than their partner? Characteristics of these « deviant »
couples The impact of the Women’s « economic
power »
Housework remains primarily « women’s work » despite the entry of women into the
labor force
Figure 1 - Daily average time spent on housework by women's activity status
Full-time Part-time
Women 3:55 4:29 6:45 5:01Men 2:14 2:14 1:52 2:07Women/Men 1,8 2,0 3,6 2,4Including childcare:Women 31 1:18 1:09 46Men 13 15 15 14Women/Men 2,4 5,2 4,6 3,3
Source : Insee, Time Use Survey 1998-99.Scope of coverage : couples within men are employed.
Employed Women Women not employed
Total
Explaining gender inequalities
Human Capital (Becker, 1981) Sociological theories of resources and
power (Blood and Wolf, 1960, Brines, 1993, 1994, Halleröd, 2005)
Economic dependency (Brines, 1994, Sorensen and MacLanahan, 1987, Halleröd, 2005)
Man or woman … « Doing gender » (Brines,1994, Greenstein, 2000, Bittman 2003)
Problematic
What impact of women’s contribution to the household income on the sharing of Housework?
Descriptive results on housework sharing when women earn more than their partner
Econometric results on the impact of an indicator of « women’s economic power »
Analysis restricted to couples where both partners are employees (1500 couples)
Plan Theoretical background and problematic Use of time and sharing of work among
French couples of employees What happens when women earn more
than their partner? Characteristics of these « deviant »
couples The impact of the Women’s « economic
power »
Some elements about Housework within couples of employees
Participation
Duration
Participation in housework and care activities
Men WomenDomestic TasksFood preparation 50 90Household upkeep 23 73Making and care for textiles 10 49Subtotal 1 59 96Household management 8 8Shopping 31 44Subtotal 2 69 97Repairs and gardening 31 10Other domestic tasks 25 19Total 82 98Family careChildcare and help to an adult family member 28 43
Scope : couples of employeesReading : 50 % of men respondants have spent at least 10 minutes doing food preparation on the diary day ; 82 % of them have done at least one of the different domestic tasks.Source : Insee, French TUS 1998-99.
Activities All days
-60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60
02:30
01:00
23:30
22:00
20:30
19:00
17:30
16:00
14:30
13:00
11:30
10:00
08:30
07:00
05:30
04:00
WomenMen
202040 40 600
Percentage of women and men performing housework at different times of a weekday %
60
%
-60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60
02:30
01:00
23:30
22:00
20:30
19:00
17:30
16:00
14:30
13:00
11:30
10:00
08:30
07:00
05:30
04:00
WomenMen
202040 40 6060 0
Percentage of women and men performing housework at different times of a weekend day
% %
Some elements about Housework within couples of employees
Participation
Duration
Men Women Men Women Men WomenPaid and unpaid Work time 8h16 8h59 9h50 10h11 4h20 6h09including : - Employment 5h56 4h51 7h53 6h25 1h05 1h11 - Family care 19 42 18 43 22 38 - Housework 2h01 3h26 1h39 3h03 2h53 4h20 including : Food management 22 1h12 19 1h05 29 1h29 Household upkeep 11 51 7 46 18 1h03 Mak ing and care for textiles 3 31 3 27 4 42 Household management 4 4 4 4 5 3 Shopping 22 33 17 30 34 40 Repairs and gardening 45 8 37 5 1h03 14 Other domestic tasks 14 7 12 6 20 9Personal time 11h23 11h36 10h49 11h01 12h49 13h00Free time 4h21 3h25 3h21 2h48 6h51 4h51Total 24h00 24h00 24h00 24h00 24h00 24h00
Scope : couples of employeesSource : Insee, French TUS 1998-99.
Mean time spent on main activies hours and minutes per day
All days Monday to Friday Saturday to Sunday
Plan Theoretical background and problematic Use of time and sharing of work among
French couples of employees What happens when women earn more
than their partner? Characteristics of these « deviant »
couples The impact of the Women’s « economic
power »
« Deviant » couples
Woman's wage < Man's Woman's wage = or > Man's
Repartition of couples of two
employees76% 24%
Sharing of housework
All couples of two
employees
Woman's wage< Man's
Woman's wage= or > Man's
Proportion of total housework performed by the man 33,1% 31,9% 36,9%
Proportion of couples who employ a cleaner help 7,5% 7,2% 8,5%
Structure of housework time of couplesin %
TotalWoman's wage
< Man's
Woman's wage= or > Man's
«Core» (food, cleaning, laundry) 55,2 56,0 52,6
Childcare 14,5 14,2 15,2
Other tasks 30,3 29,8 32,2
Total 100 100 100
Participation in domestic activities
Participation rate
TotalWoman's wage
< Man's
Woman's wage= or > Man's
in % Men Women Men Women Men Women
« Core» (food, cleaning, laundry) 59 96 57 97 66 94
« Core» + household management + shopping (A) 69 97 67 98 75 97
Total : (A) + repairs, gardening, other domestic tasks 82 98 81 98 86 97
Total housework time (hours and minutes)
All couples of two employees
Woman's wage< Man's
Woman's wage= or > Man's
Men Women Men Women Men Women
2h20 4h06 2h15 4h10 2h34 3h56
6h26 6h25 6h30
Plan Theoretical background and problematic Use of time and sharing of work among
French couples of employees What happens when women earn more
than their partner? Characteristics of these « deviant »
couples The impact of the Women’s « economic
power »
Some characteristics of these « deviant » couples
27% are not married : (versus 18% in other couples)
Women spend longer time in paid work compared to their partner (122%, according to diaries)
The Income by consumption unit is slightly higher in these households
They have on average less children and younger
They are on average younger themselves : women 37, men 39 (versus respectively 39 and 41)
Higher proportion of highly educated women
All couples of employees
Woman's wage< Man's
Woman's wage= or > Man's
Individual characteristics of partners M W M W M W
Ends scholarship before Baccalauréat 63,0 54,6 62,8 59,1 63,5 40,5
Baccalauréat 12,6 16,0 12,2 16,9 13,9 13,0
Higher education 24,4 29,4 24,9 24,0 22,6 46,5
Total (in %) 100 100 100 100 100 100
Some characteristics of these « deviant » couples
Higher occupational status of the women
All couples of two
employees
Woman's wage< Man's
Woman's wage= or > Man's
Individual characteristics of partners M W M W M W
Managers and professionals 20,5 10,8 23,7 9,0 10,6 16,5
Technicians and associate professionals 28,7 25,8 27,9 21,5 31,2 39,2
Clerks, services and sales workers 12,5 52,4 10,5 57,0 18,7 38,1
Skilled manual workers 30,1 4,5 29,3 5,2 32,5 2,2
Unskilled manual workers 8,1 6,5 8,5 7,3 6,9 4,1
Total (in %) 100 100 100 100 100 100
Some characteristics of these « deviant » couples
Some characteristics of these « deviant » couples
Higher proportion of women working in predominantly male industry
All couples of two employees
Woman's wage< Man's
Woman's wage= or > Man's
% of Women in « male » industry 14,5 13,4 17,8
% of Men in « female » industry 27,0 25,9 30,5
Some characteristics of these « deviant » couples
All these characteristics may reflect nontraditional « gender ideologies »
Hard to predict the impact of « doing gender » on Housework sharing
Plan Theoretical background and problematic Use of time and sharing of work among
French couples of employees What happens when women earn more
than their partner? Characteristics of these « deviant »
couples The impact of the Women’s « economic
power »
What impact of Women’s economic power on Men’s Share of Housework?
Relative economic power (Sorensen and Mac Lanahan, 1987):
RCWoman =(wageWoman – wageMan) / (wageWoman + wageMan)
Varying from - 0,84 to + 0,54 (mean: - 0,167)
Intra-couples wage gap is smaller than the average gender wage gap
Once controlled for all characteristics, the influence of women’s economic power
appears significant
Explicative factors of proportion of housework performed by the man
Influence
Couples’ characteristics
Woman’s economic power +++
Man’s usual paid work time / woman’s - -
Household and family care total time spent by both spouses +++
Men professional characteristics
Occupational statusns
IndustryPredominantly « male » industry ns
Predominantly «female » industry ++
Regular paid work schedules ++
Women professional characteristics ns
BUT : variability is very low
All couples of employees
Woman's wage
< Man's
Woman's wage= or > Man's
Woman wage/man wage 78,2 62,6 127,9
Proportion of housework performed by the man 33,1 31,9 36,9
Conclusion
« The persistence of responsabilities of married women for childcare and other housework in all advanced societies may only be a legacy of powerful forces from the past and may disappear or be greatly attenuated in the near future (…)
A person’s sex would then no longer be a good predictor of earnings and household activities.
It is still too early to tell how far Western societies will move in this direction »
Gary S. Becker, Human Capital, effort and the sexual division of labor, 1985.