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The Great Convergence? Gender and Unpaid Work in Europe and the United States

Pailhé, Ariane ; Solaz, Anne and Stanfors, Maria LU (2020) In Lund Papers in Economic Demography (LPED)
Abstract
Over the past decades, men’s and women’s time use has changed dramatically suggesting a
gender revolution across industrialized nations. Women increased their time in paid work and
reduced time in unpaid activities. Men increased their time in unpaid work, but not enough to
compensate. Thus, women still perform more unpaid work irrespective of context. 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 onwards. We find evidence for
gender convergence in unpaid work over time, but different trends for housework and
childcare. Gender convergence in housework was primarily a result from women reducing... (More)
Over the past decades, men’s and women’s time use has changed dramatically suggesting a
gender revolution across industrialized nations. Women increased their time in paid work and
reduced time in unpaid activities. Men increased their time in unpaid work, but not enough to
compensate. Thus, women still perform more unpaid work irrespective of context. 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 onwards. We find evidence for
gender convergence in unpaid work over time, but different trends for housework and
childcare. Gender convergence in housework was primarily a result from women reducing
their time, whereas childcare time increased for both genders only supporting convergence in
contexts where men changed more than women. Decomposition analyses show that trends in
housework and childcare are generally explained by changes in behaviour rather than
compositional changes in population characteristics. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
in
Lund Papers in Economic Demography (LPED)
issue
2020:1
pages
62 pages
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
cad3d6f6-f54d-4863-9416-136b45f3839e
alternative location
https://www.ed.lu.se/publications/Lund-Papers-in-Economic-Demography
date added to LUP
2020-04-27 11:22:06
date last changed
2022-09-01 10:57:51
@misc{cad3d6f6-f54d-4863-9416-136b45f3839e,
  abstract     = {{Over the past decades, men’s and women’s time use has changed dramatically suggesting a <br/>gender revolution across industrialized nations. Women increased their time in paid work and <br/>reduced time in unpaid activities. Men increased their time in unpaid work, but not enough to <br/>compensate. Thus, women still perform more unpaid work irrespective of context. We <br/>investigate developments regarding men’s and women’s unpaid work across Europe and the <br/>United States, using time diary data from the mid-1980s and onwards. We find evidence for <br/>gender convergence in unpaid work over time, but different trends for housework and <br/>childcare. Gender convergence in housework was primarily a result from women reducing <br/>their time, whereas childcare time increased for both genders only supporting convergence in <br/>contexts where men changed more than women. Decomposition analyses show that trends in <br/>housework and childcare are generally explained by changes in behaviour rather than <br/>compositional changes in population characteristics.}},
  author       = {{Pailhé, Ariane and Solaz, Anne and Stanfors, Maria}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Working Paper}},
  number       = {{2020:1}},
  series       = {{Lund Papers in Economic Demography (LPED)}},
  title        = {{The Great Convergence? Gender and Unpaid Work in Europe and the United States}},
  url          = {{https://www.ed.lu.se/publications/Lund-Papers-in-Economic-Demography}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}