experience of parenthood often implies a crystallization of gender roles all over the world (Lunderg and Rose, 1998).

Gender differences in time use across countries can be the reflection of gender norms and the policy environment (Gornick and Meyers, 2003). Regardless of the development level, traditional views about women and the labor market are associated with lower labor force participation and lower employment rates than men’s (Fernández 2007; Burda et al., 2007; Nicodemo and Waldmann, 2009). At the same time, women who have limited access to productive inputs have lesser latitude on whether to go to work, how far to travel, and whether to invest in a business or not. As a result, they might end up allocating less time to market work and more time to housework (Quisumbing et al., 2004; Aidis et al., 2007; Muravyevy et al., 2009; World Bank, 2010; HallwardDriemeier, 2011). In fact, women’s ability to find a job in the labor market is strongly correlated with their burden of unpaid domestic work (Floro and Komatsu, 2011). One of the problems in studying division of paid labor among heterosexual couples, however, is that the effect of gender might be confounded with income. Since women tend to have lower incomes than men, it is hard to know whether they do more of the housework because of gender norms or because they have less bargaining power due to lower earnings than their spouses (Rothblum, 2017).

Time use patterns observed over the lifecycle and women’s access to opportunities might also be explained by the characteristics of parental leave systems, as well as the availability, quality and affordability of childcare (Gornick and Meyers, 2003; Adnane et al., 2019). Evidence indicates that the provision of maternity leave and the availability of childcare at the workplace can narrow the gender differences in time allocated to market work (Apps and Rees, 2005). In Argentina, Brazil and Colombia, the provision of childcare subsidies increased mothers’ participation in the labor market as well as hours worked (Attanasio and Vera-Hernandez, 2004; Berlinski and Galiani 2007; Berlinski et al., 2009; Attanasio et al., 2017).

Labor market regulations and the characteristics of income tax regimes also affect women’s and men’s time use decisions. While the reduction of dismissal costs has been associated with increases in the employment rate of young women and men (Kugler, 2004), stricter job security regulations have reduced women’s employment rates relative to men, increasing unemployment and their chances of moving from wage employment into self-employment or informality with potential implications in the time allocated to market work (Montenegro and Pagés, 2004; Botero et al., 2004; Viollaz, 2018). Minimum wage increases, and collective bargaining processes have shown similar effects on female employment rates (Feliciano, 1998; Bertola et al., 2002; Botero et al., 2004; Arango and Pachon, 2004; Addison and Ozturk, 2010). The extension of social security benefits to other household members different from the worker contributing to the system may reduce the attachment to the labor market of the additional beneficiaries. Evidence for Argentina indicates that second earners of the household—usually women—are less likely to work in the formal sector when receiving social security benefits through the main income earner—usually men (Galiani and Weinschelbaum, 2012). The tax treatment of the family income might also 5