Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/170815 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 10831
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We examine how men and women in mixed-gender unions change the time they allocate to housework in response to labor market promotions and terminations. Operating much like raises, such events have the potential to alter intra-household power dynamics. Using Australian panel data, we estimate couple-specific fixed effects models and find that female promotion has the strongest association with housework time allocation adjustments. These adjustments are in part attributable to concurrent changes in paid work time, but gender power relations also appear to play a role. Further results indicate that households holding more liberal gender role attitudes are more likely to adjust their housework time allocations after female promotion events. Power dynamics cannot, however, explain all the results. Supporting the sociological theory that partners may 'do gender', we find that in households with more traditional gender role attitudes, his housework time falls while hers rises when he is terminated.
Subjects: 
time use
intra-household allocation
gender
housework
JEL: 
D13
J10
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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