Skip to main content
Erschienen in:

01.08.2024 | Research Paper

The Division of Labour Within the Household and Life Satisfaction

verfasst von: Anna Gudrun Ragnarsdottir, Paul McNamee, Edward C. Norton, Thorhildur Olafsdottir, Tinna Laufey Asgeirsdottir

Erschienen in: Journal of Happiness Studies | Ausgabe 6/2024

Einloggen

Aktivieren Sie unsere intelligente Suche, um passende Fachinhalte oder Patente zu finden.

search-config
loading …

Abstract

Historically, the division of labour within the household has been characterized by women allocating more time to domestic labour and men allocating more time to market labour. Although pressure for gender equality in both domestic and market labour is rising, it is unclear how the division of labour within the household relates to life satisfaction. Using panel data from the Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (2002–2021) and couple-fixed effects models we estimate, by gender, the relationship between own and partner’s time spent on various household responsibilities and life satisfaction using three different measures of time use for four household responsibilities. Household responsibilities are divided into routine chores, taking care of own children, outdoor tasks, and paid work. Our main findings include that household responsibilities that significantly relate to life satisfaction differ by gender. However, outdoor tasks (maintenance and gardening) positively relate to the life satisfaction of both men and women. We further find that women’s life satisfaction is more sensitive to comparisons to others, both within and outside the home, than men’s life satisfaction. The results also suggest that men experience increased life satisfaction if they spend more time on household responsibilities traditionally performed by women and less time on paid work. Conversely, women's life satisfaction does not increase with greater spousal contribution to these tasks but does increase when they themselves spend less time on paid work.

Sie haben noch keine Lizenz? Dann Informieren Sie sich jetzt über unsere Produkte:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 102.000 Bücher
  • über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Automobil + Motoren
  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
  • Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
  • Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 67.000 Bücher
  • über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Versicherung + Risiko




Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

Anhänge
Nur mit Berechtigung zugänglich
Fußnoten
1
The gender indices include the Gender Empowerment Measure, Gender Development Index, Gender Inequality Index, and the Gender Gap Index.
 
2
Employment age is defined by Foster and Stratton (2019) and excludes all younger than 20, men older than 64, women older than 61-, and 20–23-year-olds enrolled full time in higher education.
 
3
Couples who separate or divorce are omitted from the sample at the time of separation/divorce.
 
4
Respondents are told that the total sum of hours spent on the nine activities cannot exceed the total of 168 h of one week and typically will not be greater than 120 (assuming 6 h of sleep each night in a week). If it is, they are asked to please re-think their answers.
 
5
Only looking at men who have children does not affect this result. We have already controlled for the number of children by age.
 
6
It should be kept in mind that the models control for both labour market status and the number of children by age-group.
 
7
Men in Australia are on average fully employed, while women are on average part-time employed as apparent in Table D2.
 
8
However, when limiting the sample to only parents, as is the case in Dotti Sani (2022), the results for men remain the same but the results for women become positive and linear.
 
Literatur
Zurück zum Zitat Becker, G. S. (1985). Human capital, effort, and the sexual division of labor. Journal of Labor Economics, 3(1), S33–S58.CrossRef Becker, G. S. (1985). Human capital, effort, and the sexual division of labor. Journal of Labor Economics, 3(1), S33–S58.CrossRef
Zurück zum Zitat Becker, G. S. (1993). A treatise on the family. Harvard University Press.CrossRef Becker, G. S. (1993). A treatise on the family. Harvard University Press.CrossRef
Zurück zum Zitat Mullahy, J., & Norton, E. C. (2022). Why transform Y? A critical assessment of dependent-variable transformations in regresssion models for skewed and sometimes-zero outcomes. NBER working paper #30735. Mullahy, J., & Norton, E. C. (2022). Why transform Y? A critical assessment of dependent-variable transformations in regresssion models for skewed and sometimes-zero outcomes. NBER working paper #30735.
Zurück zum Zitat Stavrova, O. (2014). Fitting in and getting happy: How conformity to societal norms affects subjective well-being (Vol. 4). Campus Verlag. Stavrova, O. (2014). Fitting in and getting happy: How conformity to societal norms affects subjective well-being (Vol. 4). Campus Verlag.
Zurück zum Zitat Stavrova, O., & Fetchenhauer, D. (2015). Single parents, unhappy parents? Parenthood, partnership, and the cultural normative context. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 46(1), 134–149.CrossRef Stavrova, O., & Fetchenhauer, D. (2015). Single parents, unhappy parents? Parenthood, partnership, and the cultural normative context. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 46(1), 134–149.CrossRef
Zurück zum Zitat Stavrova, O., Fetchenhauer, D., & Schlösser, T. (2013). Why are religious people happy? The effect of the social norm of religiosity across countries. Social Science Research, 42(1), 90–105.CrossRef Stavrova, O., Fetchenhauer, D., & Schlösser, T. (2013). Why are religious people happy? The effect of the social norm of religiosity across countries. Social Science Research, 42(1), 90–105.CrossRef
Zurück zum Zitat Wooldridge, J. M. (2013). Introductory econometrics—A modern approach (5th ed.). Cengage Learning. Wooldridge, J. M. (2013). Introductory econometrics—A modern approach (5th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Metadaten
Titel
The Division of Labour Within the Household and Life Satisfaction
verfasst von
Anna Gudrun Ragnarsdottir
Paul McNamee
Edward C. Norton
Thorhildur Olafsdottir
Tinna Laufey Asgeirsdottir
Publikationsdatum
01.08.2024
Verlag
Springer Netherlands
Erschienen in
Journal of Happiness Studies / Ausgabe 6/2024
Print ISSN: 1389-4978
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-7780
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-024-00796-x