Drawing on data from a panel study of White women spanning 31 years, the analyses examine the influence of women’s employment on the gendered division of household labor. Multiple dimensions of women’s employment are investigated, including accumulated employment histories, current employment status, current employment hours, and relative income. Results from fixed effect and change score models suggest that the husbands of women who accumulate more employment experience over the course of marriage perform a relatively larger amount of routine housework than the husbands of women with shorter employment histories. Women’s employment status at a given point in time also increases men’s relative participation in routine housework, and the influence of women’s employment status operates in part by increasing women’s support for egalitarian roles between spouses. Finally, women’s hours of employment and relative income are stronger predictors of housework allocation than is their current employment status.
Allison, P. D. (1994). Using panel data to estimate the effects of events. Sociological Methods and Research, 23, 174-199.
2.
Altug, S., & Miller, R. A. (1998). The effect of work experience on female wages and labour supply. Review of Economic Studies, 65, 45-85.
3.
Artis, J. E., & Pavalko, E. K. (2003). Explaining the decline in women’s household labor: Individual change and cohort differences. Journal of Marriage and Family, 65, 746-761.
4.
Barnett, R. C., & Shen, Y. (1997). Gender, high- and low-schedule-control housework tasks, and psychological distress: A study of dual-earner couples. Journal of Family Issues, 18, 403-428.
5.
Becker, G. S. (1991). A treatise on the family. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
6.
Berk, S. F. (1985). The gender factory: The apportionment of work in American households. New York: Plenum.
7.
Bianchi, S. M., Milkie, M. A., Sayer, L. C., & Robinson, J. P. (2000). Is anyone doing the housework? Trends in the gender division of household labor. Social Forces, 79, 191-228.
8.
Bittman, M., England, P., Folbre, N., Sayer, L., & Matheson, G. (2003). When does gender trump money? Bargaining and time in household work. American Journal of Sociology, 109, 186-214.
9.
Blair, S. L., & Lichter, D. T. (1991). Measuring the division of household labor: Gender segregation of housework among American couples. Journal of Family Issues, 12, 91-113.
10.
Bolzendahl, C. I., & Myers, D. J. (2004). Feminist attitudes and support for gender equality: Opinion change in women and men, 1974-1998. Social Forces, 83, 759-790.
11.
Brayfield, A. (1992). Employment resources and housework in Canada. Journal of Marriage and Family, 54, 19-30.
12.
Brines, J. (1994). Economic dependency, gender, and the division of labor at home. American Journal of Sociology, 100, 652-688.
13.
Budig, M. J., & England, P. (2001). The wage penalty for motherhood. American Sociological Review, 66, 204-225.
14.
Coltrane, S. (1989). Household labor and the routine production of gender. Social Problems, 36, 473-490.
15.
Coltrane, S. (2000). Research on household labor: Modeling and measuring the social embeddedness of routine family work. Journal of Marriage and Family, 62, 1208-1233.
16.
Coltrane, S., & Ishii-Kuntz, M. (1992). Men’s housework: A life course perspective. Journal of Marriage and Family, 54, 43-57.
17.
Coverdill, J. E., Kraft, J. M., & Manley, K. S. (1996). Employment history, the sex typing of occupations, pay and change in gender-role attitudes: A longitudinal study of young married women. Sociological Focus, 29, 47-60.
18.
Coverman, S. (1985). Explaining husbands’ participation in domestic labor. Sociological Quarterly, 26, 81-97.
19.
Elder, G. H., Jr. (1994). Time, human agency, and social change: Perspectives on the life course. Social Psychology Quarterly, 57, 4-15.
20.
England, P., & Farkas, G. (1986). Households, employment, and gender: A social, economic, and demographic view. New York: Aldine.
21.
Fan, P., & Marini, M. M. (2000). Influences on gender-role attitudes during the transition to adulthood. Social Science Research, 29, 258-283.
22.
Ferree, M. M., & Hess, B. B. (1985). Controversy and coalition: The new feminist movement. Boston: Twayne.
23.
Folbre, N. (2001). The invisible heart: Economics and family values. New York: The New Press.
24.
Goldscheider, F. K., & Waite, L. J. (1991). New families, no families? The transformation of the American home. Berkeley: University of California Press.
25.
Greenstein, T. N. (1996). Husbands’ participation in domestic labor: Interactive effects of wives’ and husbands’ gender ideologies. Journal of Marriage and Family, 58, 585-595.
26.
Greenstein, T. N. (2000). Economic dependence, gender, and the division of labor in the home: A replication and extension. Journal of Marriage and Family, 62, 322-335.
27.
Gupta, S. (1999). Gender display? A reassessment of the relationship between men’s economic dependence and their housework hours. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Chicago, IL.
28.
Halaby, C. N. (2004). Panel models in sociological research: Theory into practice. Annual Review of Sociology, 30, 507-544.
29.
Hertz, R., & Marshall, N. L. (2001). Working families: The transformation of the American home. Berkeley: University of California Press.
30.
Hochschild, A. (1989). The second shift. New York: Avon Books.
31.
Huber, J., & Spitze, G. (1981). Wives’ employment, household behaviors, and sex-role attitudes. Social Forces, 60, 150-169.
32.
Johnson, M. (2005). Two-wave panel analysis: Comparing statistical methods for studying the effects of transitions. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67, 1061-1075.
33.
Kamo, Y. (1988). Determinants of household division of labor: Resources, power, and ideology. Journal of Family Issues, 9, 177-200.
34.
Orbuch, T. L., & Eyster, S. L. (1997). Division of household labor among Black couples and White couples. Social Forces, 76, 301-332.
35.
Pittman, J. F., & Blanchard, D. (1996). The effects of work history and timing of marriage on the division of household labor: A life-course perspective. Journal of Marriage and Family, 58, 78-90.
36.
Pleck, J. H. (1985). Working wives, working husbands. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
37.
Plutzer, E. (1991). Work life, family life, and women’s support of feminism. American Sociological Review, 53, 640-649.
38.
Presser, H. B. (1994). Employment schedules among dual-earner spouses and the division of household labor by gender. American Sociological Review, 59, 348-364.
39.
Robinson, J. R., & Godbey, G. (1997). Time for life: The surprising ways Americans use their time. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
40.
Sanchez, L., & Thomson, E. (1997). Becoming mothers and fathers: Parenthood, gender, and the division of labor. Gender and Society, 11, 747-772.
41.
Shelton, B. A. (1991). The distribution of household tasks: Does wife’s employment status make a difference? Journal of Family Issues, 11, 115-135.
42.
Shelton, B. A. (1992). Women, men, and time: Gender differences in paid work, housework, and leisure. Westport, CT: Greenwood.
43.
Shelton, B. A., & John, D. (1996). The division of household labor. Annual Review of Sociology, 22, 299-322.
44.
Spain, D., & Bianchi, S. M. (1996). Balancing act. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
45.
Szinovacz, M. E. (2000). Changes in housework after retirement: A panel analysis. Journal of Marriage and Family, 62, 78-92.
46.
Thornton, A., Alwin, D. F., & Camburn, D. (1983). Causes and consequences of sex-role attitudes and attitude change. American Sociological Review, 48, 211-227.
