Cross‐national variations in the division of household labor

Using data from the International Social Justice Project, we describe the division of household labor in married couple households using a sample of 13 nations (N = 10,153). We find significant differences in the division of household labor based upon respondents' nations of residence. We find support for the time availability approach; households where the wife is employed outside the home for pay are more likely to respond that husbands perform at least half of the household labor. We also find support for the relative resources approach; in households where wives' education equals or exceeds that of their husbands, husbands are more likely to perform half of the household labor. We find little support for the economic dependence approach. We suggest that future cross-national research should place individuals in context to determine why there are nation differences in the reported division of household labor. Key Words: cross-national, division of household labor, housework. Families as social institutions perform similar tasks regardless of social context. Families serve as sites for teaching children how to be a part of the larger society. They also serve as the location for reproductive labor. It remains to be seen whether the processes through which these tasks are performed are the same across social contexts. More specifically, are the factors predicting who performs the reproductive household labor the same across social contexts? The purpose of this research is to analyze reports of the division of household labor in married-couple households using data from the International Social Justice Project and to focus on five key issues: (a) Are there differences in the division of household labor between husbands and wives based upon their nation of residence? (b) Is there cross-national empirical support for the relative resources approach that explains the division of household labor? (c) Is there cross-national empirical support for the economic dependency approach that explains the division of household labor? (d) Is there cross-national empirical support for the time availability approach that explains the division of household labor? and (e) Do the factors that predict the reported division of household labor differ based upon the respondent's gender? BACKGROUND Studies based in the United States have shown that although the amount and proportion of household labor spouses perform have changed since the 1960s, gender continues to be the best single predictor of the time spent doing housework. Although American women's time spent doing housework has decreased and men's time spent doing housework has increased since 1965 (Robinson, 1997), women continue to perform the lion's share of household labor (see Coltrane, 2000, for a recent review). To explain inequalities in task allocation, social scientists have developed several conceptual approaches. We focus on three of these approaches. The relative resources approach takes an exchange-based perspective, such that the division of housework reflects the resources that women and men bring to their relationships. Individuals with the most resources (e.g., earnings, education) use those resources to negotiate a favorable division of labor for themselves. This perspective presumes that household labor is viewed negatively by both spouses, and that both actively work to reduce their load (Shelton & John, 1996). In general, the research literature supports this perspective, although there are differences based upon the kind of relative resource measured. A related approach is the economic dependency approach (Brines, 1993), which suggests that housework is "women's work" because of wives' economic dependency upon their husbands. Because of this dependency, wives allocate more time to domestic work than their husbands do. The time availability perspective focuses on family members' time allocation between market and domestic work (Hiller, 1984). …