Gender inequality, households, and work

• The division of labor between household partners is a core topic in family sociology. Although rising divorce rates, closing gender gaps in education, family policies for fathers, and increases in female labor force participation have levelled the playing field for men and women, we observe consistent and stubborn patterns of unequal divisions of labor within heterosexual couples across the globe. In fact, this is an example of a well-established empirical regularity that rigorous sociology aims to explain (see Jackson’s chapter on sociology as a population science in this Handbook on such regu-larities as well as the chapter by Raub, De Graaf & Gërxhani on rigorous sociology for a more general discussion). When it comes to achieving gender equality between male and female household partners, progress has been painstakingly slow. Women’s finan-cial independence is hindered when they specialize in household duties. They still spend considerably more time on unpaid labor, and men spend more time in the labor market throughout the world (Fuwa 2004; McMunn et al. 2020). Minimal differences at the onset of a relationship may, over time, lead to strong divisions between partners (Grunow et al. 2012; Rothstein 2012; Vink 2020). Unpaid labor comprises both domes-tic duties and childcare. For domestic duties such as cleaning and washing, patterns have been much more stubborn than for childcare (Treas & Drobnič 2010). Fathers increased their time in childcare significantly over the last few decades, but mothers hardly decreased theirs (Craig et al. 2014). Women on average have less leisure time than men, and their total combined work hours often exceed those of men. Due to their further responsibilities and associated time pressure, women also tend to experience a lower quality of leisure than men (Henderson & Gibson 2013; Yerkes et al. 2020, but see Bittman & Wajcman 2000 for a different perspective).In this chapter, we provide an overview of the explanations that have been offered to understand the unequal division of labor; that is, the differences not in total time, but in time spent in paid and unpaid labor. We start with an overview of the three main theo-retical mechanisms, and empirical findings on the micro-level in the section on micro-level explanations, before we turn to the contextual level in the section on contextual explana-tions. We pay particular attention to different key mechanisms that could be driving the division of labor, and how contextual level influences relate to these mechanisms. In doing so, we adopt the general perspective on micro-macro links in rigorous sociology.Despite a huge amount of research on these topics, however, we seem only marginally closer to understanding the division of labor. In the section on new directions we there-fore discuss recent theoretical and empirical progress that has been made by studying atypical heterosexual couples and same-sex couples. Analyzing these couples may provide a new perspective and better insight in mechanisms underlying the division of labor overall. Finally, we consider pressing open questions in relation to understanding the division of labor as well as avenues for future rigorous research.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

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