the gendered division of housework and parenting
DESCRIPTION
The logics of privatization of the care together with the poor development of family policies in Spain, places most of the responsibility of the child care on families. Therefore, the compatibility of productive work with the care of children involves, necessarily, the selection and acceptance of specific family strategies. One of the strategies that families follow to conciliate parenting and working, is outsourcing early child care (0-3 years) to educational institutions such as day care centers. The selection of the type of day care (both in terms of the curricula as well as the days and hours) depends on the available sources on the one hand; and parents´ individual projections on the care needs of their offspring on the other hand. The interest of the current research is the division of child care related decisions as well as the actual child care in the household between parents and/or other caretakers. The central research questions are: Who participates in the early child care? What type of gender relations can we identify in these arrangements? Whether and how are related the educational projections and the actual division of child care activities of the parents? The data comes from the project "Parental Models and Educational Demands" and was collected from 18 early care centers and more than 200 families in Valencia, Spain. We will study the co-responsibility of early child care and care decision by parents. Given the family-oriented welfare regime of Spain, we consider the whole network of the family in arranging the child care, such as help provided by grandparents or other members of extended family.TRANSCRIPT
The gendered division
of housework and child care
of families with young childrenDaniel Gabaldón-Estevan1 & Kadri Täht2
1 - Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, University of Valencia (ES)
2 - Institute of International and Social Studies, Tallinn University (EE)
September 5th, 2014
2
Introduction
Theoretical framework
Research questions
Data and variables
Findings
Discussion
Index
3
In the context of our analysis on how families handle the early transition from the home environment to the school system we take a look on how housework and parenting is arranged.
The family is a lively and diverse institution experiencing changes and new demands and our interest is to explore how different families arrange their family commitments.
Introduction
4
Theoretical framework
Cultural Capital
Field
The incorporation of women into the “paid” labor market (outside the home) has elicited changes of the organization of housework within the household.
In the literature on this subject it is recognized that there is a greater acceptance by men of the need to establish a more equal sharing of domestic tasks and care of children. However, when this occurs more often in saying (theoretical) than in the doing (practice).
It has also been documented that this division of labor based on gender transcends the vicinity of the nuclear family and affects the degree of involvement of other relatives according to their sex.
5
Research questions
What is the degree of fairness in the division of household
tasks?
Which other family members are used to facilitate conciliation?
What is the degree of equity in caring for the offspring?
Affects the above to the educational demands of
families?
6
Valencia (ES) year 2012
192 CEI (181 priv. & 11 pub.)
Contacted 185 CEI (96,35%)
Took part 17 CEI (9,2%)
Took part 251 (+1) families (25%)
Data and variables (MPyDE project)
7
Breeding practices
Family composition
Educational demands (S&C)
Child rearing distribution
Data and variables (MPyDE project)
Cultural equipment
Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation
Scale
Mobility
Sociodemografics
Household work distribution
Respondent’s cultural activities
Children cultural activities
8
Findings: Who participates in the early child care?
Broth
er/S
iste
r
Grandm
other
Grandfa
ther
Aunt
Uncle
Cousin
Moth
er's
par
tner
Father
's p
artn
er
Moth
er's
par
tner
son/d
aughte
r
Father
's p
artn
er s
on/dau
ghter
Other
: ass
ista
nt / g
rand g
randm
other
/ …
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
15.5
56.3
39.7
19.4
11.17.1
5.2 4.4 4.4 4.46.7
9
Findings: Differences in housework distribution
Repairs and maintenance
Household money management
Bank and administrative procedures
Taking care of dependent
Buy food
Cleaning / housekeeping
Taking care of sick
Cooking
Organizing home/family tasks
Buy clothes
Laundry and clothing care
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
couple male both / other couple women
10
Findings: Who participates in the early child care? Differences in parenting involvement
Weekend leisure
Playing
Change diapers
Bath
Reading
Programmed activities (swimming)
Bring to school
Put to bed
Leisure after class
Soft sickness care
School organized activities
Prepare and give breakfast
Pick up from school
Woke up and dress
Bring to doctor
Prepare and give afternoon snack
Prepare and give lunch
Prepare and give dinner
Prepare and give morning snack
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
couple male both / other couple women
11
ResultadosEgalitarian Mixt Feminized
Indices -26% -50% -24%Organizing home/family tasks
Household maintenance
.23 .34 .77Laundry and clothing careCleaning / housekeeping
CookingBuy food
Taking care of dependent Caring of Dependent
.00 .33 .82Taking care of sick
Household money management Administering Household
.05 -.01 .44Bank and administrative procedures
Buy clothes Buy clothes .23 .72 .85
Repairs and maintenance Repairs .02 -.99 .06
Pick up from school
Activities and afternoon care
.11 .32 .76
Prepare and give afternoon snackBring to doctor
Leisure after schoolSchool organized activities
Programmed activities (swimming)Woke up and dress
Morning care .20 .16 .68Prepare and give breakfast
Prepare and give morning snackBring to school
Prepare and give dinner / lunchFeeding .17 .50 .80
Prepare and give dinnerBath
Activities and evening care
.12 .13 .60Put to bed
Change diapersSoft sickness care
PlayingQuality time .00 .07 .40Weekend leisure
Reading
Findings by model
12
InformaticsForeign languages
AgreementUniform
Other levels
CalendarOpening hours
CantinaSummer school
PedagogyLanguage
MusicParents School
TariffsFacilities
Bus
Distinction
Pedagogy
Immediateness
ɑ 0,77
ɑ 0,80
ɑ 0,62
Findings: is the actual division of child care activities of the parents related with the educational preferences?
13
Findings: is the actual division of child care activities of the parents related with the educational preferences?
Distinction Immediateness Pedagogy(Constant) 1899 3063 2391
Women .306 .332 -.121
Age (respondent) .010 .014 .029
Primary studies (respondent) .297 -.026 -.024
Secondary studies (respondent) .255 .169 -.256
Primary studies (other parent) .156 .187 .137
Secondary studies (other parent) -.149 -.226 -.017
Net annual income (respondent) .110 .071 .002
Net annual income (other parent) -.078 -.109 -.043
Unemployed (respondent) .542 -.132 .481
Temporary contract (respondent) -.310 -.582 -.279
Directive .123 .158 .186
Semi-professional .088 .626 -.020
Administrative .080 .253 .119
Services -.081 .080 -.021
Domestic not paid .376 .127 .696
Qualified industry, construction… .253 .861 .001
Not qualified -.015 .463 -.010
Egalitarian .211 .047 .278
Feminized .637 .447 .292
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Limitations
Preliminary results
Small sample
Thank you for your attention,
comments and suggestions
Discussion
Gendered pattern of household and care division of tasks within “new” families (i.e. with young children)
No “masculinized” pattern found
The pattern of household and care division of tasks do not influences educational demands