Maria Stanfors
Professor
The Great Convergence? Gender and Unpaid Work in Europe and the United States
Author
Summary, in English
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.
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.
Department/s
- Centre for Economic Demography
Publishing year
2020
Language
English
Publication/Series
Lund Papers in Economic Demography (LPED)
Issue
2020:1
Links
Document type
Working paper
Topic
- Economics
Status
Published
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)