Work, Family, and Gendered Happiness Among Married People in Urban China

Previous studies on subjective well-being primarily focus on individuals’ own characteristics. Pooling data from recent Chinese General Social Surveys (N = 9445), we examine individual happiness among young and middle-aged married people in urban China, by taking into account their spouses’ characteristics. Drawing on the male breadwinner model, we reveal that husband’s employment is much more strongly related to individual happiness of both the husband and the wife than wife’s employment. In addition, a man’s contribution to the household income has a more positive effect on his happiness than a woman’s contribution on her happiness. Meanwhile, those coresiding with both dependent children and parents have lower likelihoods of happiness than those with no dependents. Our results demonstrate that gender roles remain strictly defined in urban China, in which the husband bears the breadwinner role and the wife assumes the homemaker role. Relatedly, living with both parents and dependent children does not lessen the level of happiness any more for women than for men, suggesting that Chinese women do not shirk their caregiving responsibilities.