The Great Convergence? Gender and Unpaid Work in Europe and the United States
(2021) In Population and Development Review 47(1). p.181-217- Abstract
- Over the past decades, men's and women's time use in industrialized nations has changed dramatically, suggesting a gender revolution. Women increased their time in paid work and reduced time in unpaid activities, while men increased their time in unpaid work, but not enough to compensate for women's retreat. We investigate developments regarding men's and women's unpaid work across Europe and the United States, using time diary data from the mid‐1980s and onward. We find evidence for gender convergence in unpaid work over time, but different trends for housework and childcare. Gender convergence in housework primarily resulted from women reducing their time, whereas childcare time increased for both sexes, resulting in convergence only... (More)
- Over the past decades, men's and women's time use in industrialized nations has changed dramatically, suggesting a gender revolution. Women increased their time in paid work and reduced time in unpaid activities, while men increased their time in unpaid work, but not enough to compensate for women's retreat. We investigate developments regarding men's and women's unpaid work across Europe and the United States, using time diary data from the mid‐1980s and onward. We find evidence for gender convergence in unpaid work over time, but different trends for housework and childcare. Gender convergence in housework primarily resulted from women reducing their time, whereas childcare time increased for both sexes, resulting in convergence only where men increased more than did women. Decomposition analyses show that trends in housework and childcare are explained by changes in behavior rather than compositional changes in population characteristics. Though level differences in unpaid work persist, our findings regarding trends support gender convergence in that they are general across country contexts that vary regarding policy and social norms about gender, family, and work. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/81b23f6f-fcb8-4962-b596-7a9df23586f7
- author
- Pailhe, Ariane ; Solaz, Anne and Stanfors, Maria LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2021-03-24
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Population and Development Review
- volume
- 47
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 181 - 217
- publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85100722847
- ISSN
- 0098-7921
- DOI
- 10.1111/padr.12385
- project
- It's about time! Gender, parenthood and changing time use patterns, 1990-2010
- Longer working lives and informal caregiving: Tradeoffs and economic value
- Gästforskarvistelse vid Maryland Population Research Center (MPRC)
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 81b23f6f-fcb8-4962-b596-7a9df23586f7
- date added to LUP
- 2021-01-13 08:46:59
- date last changed
- 2022-09-01 11:09:31
@article{81b23f6f-fcb8-4962-b596-7a9df23586f7,
abstract = {{Over the past decades, men's and women's time use in industrialized nations has changed dramatically, suggesting a gender revolution. Women increased their time in paid work and reduced time in unpaid activities, while men increased their time in unpaid work, but not enough to compensate for women's retreat. We investigate developments regarding men's and women's unpaid work across Europe and the United States, using time diary data from the mid‐1980s and onward. We find evidence for gender convergence in unpaid work over time, but different trends for housework and childcare. Gender convergence in housework primarily resulted from women reducing their time, whereas childcare time increased for both sexes, resulting in convergence only where men increased more than did women. Decomposition analyses show that trends in housework and childcare are explained by changes in behavior rather than compositional changes in population characteristics. Though level differences in unpaid work persist, our findings regarding trends support gender convergence in that they are general across country contexts that vary regarding policy and social norms about gender, family, and work.}},
author = {{Pailhe, Ariane and Solaz, Anne and Stanfors, Maria}},
issn = {{0098-7921}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{03}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{181--217}},
publisher = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
series = {{Population and Development Review}},
title = {{The Great Convergence? Gender and Unpaid Work in Europe and the United States}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/padr.12385}},
doi = {{10.1111/padr.12385}},
volume = {{47}},
year = {{2021}},
}