labor market and housework: distribution of time in russian households yana roschina, (higher shcool...
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Labor market and housework: distribution of time in Russian households
Yana Roschina,
(Higher Shcool of Economics, Moscow)
Research problem Development of the market in modern Russia
has caused the change in the employment structure and in the everyday life of the Russians
The difference of the economic activity level between men and women at the age 18-55 is not so great (economic activity level of men – 81%, of women – 75%, Russia, 2008)
Economic activity level of women is lower then of the men in the age group below 35 (the age of giving birth and child caring) and over 55 (when they can retire)
Economic activity of men and women, 2008, Rosstat
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
< 20 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60 > age
%men
women
Professional segregation and wage gap It is well known that «female» professions
and functions are concentrated in the tertiary sector and that women are less paid than men [Roshchin 2003]
Professional segregation and wage gap are essential economic factors of women keeping a dominant role in the housework
The housekeeping practices changed from the Soviet period:
The increased number and quality of household appliances made housework easier and reduced time spent on it
The deficit has disappeared, more and more goods are sold by Internet, that is why the time spent on purchases has diminished
As it is possible now to by all clothes, there is no necessity to sew it at home
Families cultivating fruits and vegetables at their « dacha » (country house) for their own consumption become less prevailing
The structure of personal services has changed
But:
The social roles of men and women in the households remained the same as during the Soviet period
The most frequent model of female behavior is the combination of roles of housewife and a working woman
The question is :
What greatly influences the labor division between family members and between home and office?
Social roles and gender stereotypes
OR Economic factors such as human
capital and labor market characteristics
Theoretical framework Neoclassic economic theory: allocation of time in
the household is determined by effectiveness of household members on the labor market (wage rate) [Becker 1965, Gronau 1986, Cigno 1993]
Sociological approaches explain gender patterns of housework time allocation with traditions, norms, functional roles and prestige of men and women work (Functionalism, Status and is sexual-role theories, Gender display theory, Legitimation theory etc.)
The main goals of the research are : To categorize Russian households
according to the structure of time spent by family members on housework
To find the determinants of the type of labor division between households members
Data base is:
Russian Longuitudinal Monitoring Survey (Monitoring of the economic position and health of Russians) 2006, representing Russian population
About 12500 people at the age over 13, 11680 person at the age over 18 5545 households
The questionnaire «Did you practice the following kinds of
housework during the last 30 days?» (Yes/no)
«How mach time did you spend on it at your usual day?» Weekday / Week-end
Following variables were calculated:Time spent by individual on every type of
housework during a usual week
Time spent per week on all type of housework MEN – 23,1 hours per week WOMEN – 40,2 hours per week
Female housework
Participation rate Hours per week
men women men women
Shopping (groceries only) 57,7 88,0 3,8 5,2
Cooking 34,1 90,0 5,6 10,1
Dish washing 47,1 94,5 1,9 3,1
Laundry 16,5 87,3 4,6 8,0
Cleaning the house 35,0 89,4 3,7 6,6
Childcare 14,4 26,4 6,6 11,6
Male housework
Participation Hours per week
men women men women
Small car, house, summer house repairs 41,7 6,8 9,2 11,2
House or summer house construction or general repairing 17,1 2,9 14,0 14,9
Car driving with family to the shopping, summer house etc. 23,1 1,8 7,8 8,0
Housework without gender role difference
Participation Hours per week
men women men women
Agricultural labor 27,7 22,0 13,3 13,7
Other family member (children excluded) care
5,8 13,4 7,0 8,5
Help in the housework to the relatives living separately
- parents 8,8 6,9 9,1 9,3
- children 2,8 4,1 12,0 15,3
- grand-parents 2,8 1,9 8,3 7,1
- grand-children 1,1 2,3 9,1 19,5
Individual types of participation in housework They were investigated by cluster analysis
(K-means) Variables – time cost per week on different
types of housework
5 groups were found
Housewives (not women only) (27,7%) Masters (not men only) (7,3%) Tutors (5,6 %) Farmers (6,1 %) Minimalists (53,2%)
Minimalists-housewives (specialized on everyday practices)
Minimalists-masters (specialized on periodical work)
1. «The Housewives» (27,7%)
They specialize on everyday charges and spend more time at home, than any other type
Their time costs on shopping, cooking, dish washing, laundry, house cleaning are 39 hours per week
The time spent on housework in total – 46 hours per week
93,5% of cluster are women
2. «The Masters» (7,3%)
They are mainly involved into periodical types of housework (such as repair work, driving etc.)
The time spent on housework in total is about 50 hours per week
75% of this time is spent on house or summer cottage repair, driving and agricultural labor
84,5% are men, at the age 36-55, married (78%)
3. «The tutors» (5,6 %)
They spend more time on childcare in addition to everyday duties
Their time in total spent on housework is 33 hours per week including 21 hours spent on childcare
91,4% of the cluster are women, 75% are married, more than 50% are under 35 years, 61% are employed
4. «The farmers» (6,1 %)
They prefer to allocate their time to agriculture even if they live in town.
Their time spent on housework is 28 hours per week, including 20 hours per week spent on agricultural labor.
The house repairing and driving take 6 hours per week.
50% of cluster are over 55, 37% live in villages.
«The minimalists» (53,2%)
They spend minimum of heir time on housework (14 hours per week)
49% are not married, 60% are men They were divided into two subgroups
One group oriented on everyday housework (shopping, house cleaning etc.) – their time costs equal 22 hours per week
the other oriented on periodic types of work (house repairing, car driving etc.), their time costs equal 10 hours per week
MEN: Clusters by age (%)
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
13-1
5
16-1
9
20-2
4
25-2
9
30-3
4
35-3
9
40-4
4
45-4
9
50-5
4
55-5
9
60-6
4
>=65
farmers
tutors
housew ifes
minimalists
minimalist-housew ifesminimalist-masters
WOMEN: Clusters by age (%)
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
13-1
5
16-1
9
20-2
4
25-2
9
30-3
4
35-3
9
40-4
4
45-4
9
50-5
4
55-5
9
60-6
4
>=65
farmers
tutors
housew ifes
masters
minimalist-housew ifes
minimalist-masters
1265 households have one one adult; including 195 households with one adult and 1-2 children What determine the type of their
housework? To find these factors we tested the
multinomial regression for the whole sample and for men and women separately
Dependent variable – types of housework, found in the model of cluster analysis
The essential factors of housework specialization in the households with only one adult are:
Gender Labor market employment Wage and the other incomes (this fact confirms
the theory) Age is significant in the model for lonely women Children age is significant in the model for
women with 1-2 children
Categorization of households with more than two adults
The goal of this part of research was to go from individual level to the level of the households
Thus we needed to come up with the procedure of typology of households with any structure (not only the labor division between spouses which was investigated by some researches)
Two-step cluster analysis was used, 6 variables were constructed as the percent of adults in every individual type of housework, obtained as said above (every variable changing from 0 to 1)
6 clusters of households were found: Patriarchal (30%) = housewife + mini-master Minimum-egalitarian (18 %) = mini-wousewife + mini-
master OR mini-housewife Agricultural (11,5%) = farmer + housewife Caring (childcare) (12,4%) =
la bonne + la bonne OR le maître OR le maître-mini Traditional-egalitarian(13,1 %) = master + housewife Daily-minimal (11,9 %) = housewife (or mini-housewife)
+ mini-housewife
What determines the type of the division of housework in the household?
We tested the multinomial regression with dependent variable «the type of housework division», basic type - «patriarchal» (which one is the most frequent)
Significant predictors of housework allocation type are: family type (number of member, number of
children) urbanization level, land ownership and car possession, employment and education of family members
characteristics of the head of the family: age, gender, marriage status, frequency of alcohol use and nationality
Conclusions
In general, traditions and myths are stronger determinants than economic factors (wage etc.): women are always more occupied by housework than men despite the difference in their labor market effectiveness
But the economic factors influence the housework allocation as well
The type «patriarchal» (the third of households) There are two adults in most of these types of
household - housewife and minimalist-master The housewives are mostly women, and their
time costs on housework are 43 hours per week The minimalists-master are mostly men, they
spend about 15 hours per week on house cleaning, house and summer cottage repair, car driving and agricultural labor
The type «patriarchal» 39% of households are large families, 36% are
spouses with 1-2 children under 18 55% live in towns (excluding Moscow and St-
Petersburg Income per capita is 5.6 thousand rubles (about
200$), it is lower than in the whole sample Only in 30% of households there is a person
with University diploma 84% of adults are employed 23% of household heads are workers
The type «minimum-egalitarian»(18% of households) There are two adults in these households whose
types of housework are: Minimalist-housewife + minimalist-master (more than
half of the cluster) Two minimalist-housewives (more than 40 % of the
cluster) Time costs on housework of one of them are
about 32 hours per week, of the other – about 15 hours
This type of households present the division of housework not only between man and woman, but between two women too
The type «minimum-egalitarian» is more probable (in comparison with patriarchal) if: Number of household members is larger Percent of employed adults is higher Children number is lower Household head is woman Household head is chef of an enterprise
The type «agricultural» (11,5 % of households) 82% of members of this households who are
most employed in the housework (71 hours per week) and 35,7% of others households members (37 hours per week) belong to the cluster of «farmers» (individual type of housework)
In the majority of households there are two adults, man and woman as well as two women (two men are very rare)
The type «agricultural» is more probable if: Households live in the country or in the
towns other than Moscow and St-Petersburg
Percentage of adults employed is higher Household head is Russian Household head consumes alcohol very
often
The type «caring (childcare)» (12,4% of households) The individual type of 92% households members
whose time spending on housework is the largest (64 hours per week) is «tutor»
Most of them are women 22% of other adults (who spend about 37 hours
on housework) are «tutors» too (most of them are women); 21% of them are «minimalist-masters» and 16% are «masters» (most of them are men)
The type «carying» is more probable if: There are children under 3 years old in the
household Size of household is larger There is a grand-mother in this family Family members are more educated Household head is a man Household head age is lower There is a car in the household
The type «traditional-egalitarian» (13,1 % of households) People mostly occupied by housework (60 hours
per week) are divided into two parts: 55% of them are «masters» (who are mostly men – 75%) and 42% - «housewives» (women only)
The second family member whose time spending is lower (38 hours) can be «master» (50%) or «housewife» (about 35%)
There is precise division of roles in this household (male or female), but both spend a lot of time on housework
The type «traditional-egalitarian» is more probable if: Household lives in a village Their income is very low They have a car, a large house and some
land Household head is young Household head drinks alcohol often
The type «daily-minimum» (11,9% of households) 58% of persons mostly occupied by housework
(39 hours per week) are housewives (women), 39% of them are minimalist-housewives (three quarters – women)
89% of the second adults (time costs are 22 hours of housework) are minimalist-housewives (more than half of them are men)
The structure of housework of these two people is the same (shopping, room cleaning etc., there is no “male” occupations) but there is difference in time costs (the “first” person spend twice more than the “second”)
The type «daily-minimum» is more probable if: Family lives in a city (especially Moscow and St-
Petersburg) There is no children in the household Household head is woman There are many home appliances Human capital of household members is high Household income is high