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Buying Out? – Purchases of Domestic Services and Swedish Women’s Housework Shares

Brånsjö, Linnea LU (2026) SOCM05 20252
Sociology
Abstract (Swedish)
In order to enhance understanding of what factors influence the gender division of housework, this study investigates the association between households’ purchases of domestic services and women's share of unpaid domestic labour in Swedish heterosexual working couples. Findings from logistic regression analyses suggest that purchases of domestic services, in the literature sometimes also referred to as ‘domestic outsourcing’, have no significant effect on the gender division of unpaid domestic labour. Women in the sample (N = 2,007) were found to be 3.1 % less likely to do the majority of the housework in outsourcing households when other influential factors were taken into account, and male respondents’ (N = 1,630) female spouses were... (More)
In order to enhance understanding of what factors influence the gender division of housework, this study investigates the association between households’ purchases of domestic services and women's share of unpaid domestic labour in Swedish heterosexual working couples. Findings from logistic regression analyses suggest that purchases of domestic services, in the literature sometimes also referred to as ‘domestic outsourcing’, have no significant effect on the gender division of unpaid domestic labour. Women in the sample (N = 2,007) were found to be 3.1 % less likely to do the majority of the housework in outsourcing households when other influential factors were taken into account, and male respondents’ (N = 1,630) female spouses were 1.3% less likely to do so. These minor differences were not statistically significant, meaning that they might be products of chance. I thus find no support for Gupta’s autonomy hypothesis, according to which domestic outsourcing is a way for high-income women to buy out of unequal housework sharing arrangements. Findings are instead in line with theoretical expectations from West and Zimmerman’s doing-gender perspective. The results from this analysis further cast doubt on the potential of state funded subsidies for purchases of domestic services to facilitate more gender equal housework sharing practices in the households receiving such subsidies. (Less)
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author
Brånsjö, Linnea LU
supervisor
organization
course
SOCM05 20252
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Housework, Domestic Work, Household Labour Division, Paid Domestic Services, Domestic Outsourcing, Gender, Sweden
language
English
id
9220368
date added to LUP
2026-01-23 14:16:59
date last changed
2026-01-23 14:16:59
@misc{9220368,
  abstract     = {{In order to enhance understanding of what factors influence the gender division of housework, this study investigates the association between households’ purchases of domestic services and women's share of unpaid domestic labour in Swedish heterosexual working couples. Findings from logistic regression analyses suggest that purchases of domestic services, in the literature sometimes also referred to as ‘domestic outsourcing’, have no significant effect on the gender division of unpaid domestic labour. Women in the sample (N = 2,007) were found to be 3.1 % less likely to do the majority of the housework in outsourcing households when other influential factors were taken into account, and male respondents’ (N = 1,630) female spouses were 1.3% less likely to do so. These minor differences were not statistically significant, meaning that they might be products of chance. I thus find no support for Gupta’s autonomy hypothesis, according to which domestic outsourcing is a way for high-income women to buy out of unequal housework sharing arrangements. Findings are instead in line with theoretical expectations from West and Zimmerman’s doing-gender perspective. The results from this analysis further cast doubt on the potential of state funded subsidies for purchases of domestic services to facilitate more gender equal housework sharing practices in the households receiving such subsidies.}},
  author       = {{Brånsjö, Linnea}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Buying Out? – Purchases of Domestic Services and Swedish Women’s Housework Shares}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}