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Children’s housework – Are girls more active than boys?

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  • Jens Bonke

    (The Rockwool Foundation Research Unit)

Abstract

This paper examines boys’ and girls’ housework in a Nordic welfare state which is characterized by both high labor market participation rates for mothers and fathers and a narrow income distribution which makes it expen-sive for ordinary parents to hire paid household help. We use data from the European Community Household Panel Survey 1998 and run tobit-regressions to take the number of children reporting no housework into consid-eration. The results show that children do only a minor part of the total housework, and that boys participate less than girls. There is a positive impact of mothers’ full time work on children’s housework, while mothers having a higher education level decrease boys’ participation in housework. Finally, the time children spend on paid work is found more positively correlated with girls’ than with boys’ contributions to housework.

Suggested Citation

  • Jens Bonke, 2010. "Children’s housework – Are girls more active than boys?," electronic International Journal of Time Use Research, Research Institute on Professions (Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)) and The International Association for Time Use Research (IATUR), vol. 7(1), pages 1-16, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:leu:journl:2010:vol7:issue1:p1-16
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    File URL: http://www2.leuphana.de/ffb/eijtur/pdf/volumes/eIJTUR-7-1-1_Bonke.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. C. Russell Hill & Frank P. Stafford, 1974. "Allocation of Time to Preschool Children and Educational Opportunity," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 9(3), pages 323-341.
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    Cited by:

    1. Florian Schulz, 2020. "Trends in Children’s Gendered Housework Performance. Time Use Evidence from Germany, 1991–2013," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 13(4), pages 1313-1334, August.
    2. Lyn Craig & Abigail Powell, 2018. "Shares of Housework Between Mothers, Fathers and Young People: Routine and Non-routine Housework, Doing Housework for Oneself and Others," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 136(1), pages 269-281, February.
    3. Begoña Álvarez & Daniel Miles-Touya, 2012. "Exploring the relationship between parents’ and children’s housework time in Spain," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 299-318, June.
    4. Jaejin Ahn & Joan P. Yoo, 2022. "Patterns of Time Use among 12-Year-Old Children and Their Life Satisfaction: A Gender and Cross-Country Comparison," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 15(5), pages 1693-1717, October.
    5. Martin Boďa & Mariana Považanová & Gabriela Nedelová & Anna Vallušová, 2024. "Gendered Division of Housework in Slovak Couples: Life Course and Other Factors," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 649-671, September.
    6. Lyn Craig & Abigail Powell & Judith Brown, 2015. "Co-resident Parents and Young People Aged 15–34: Who Does What Housework?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 121(2), pages 569-588, April.
    7. Sushobhan Mahata & Rohan Kanti Khan & Soumyajit Mandal, 2023. "Dowry and Female Education: A Theoretical Evaluation (Article)," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 62(1), pages 41-59.
    8. J. Ignacio Gimenez-Nadal & José Alberto Molina & Yu Zhu, 2018. "Intergenerational mobility of housework time in the United Kingdom," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 911-937, December.
    9. Md. Moyazzem Hossain & Faruq Abdulla & Abdul Hai & Md Tareq Ferdous Khan & Azizur Rahman & Atikur Rahman, 2023. "Exploring the Prevalence, Duration and Determinants of Participation in Household Chores Among Children Aged 5–17 Years in Bangladesh," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 16(5), pages 2107-2124, October.
    10. Anne Solaz & François-Charles Wolff, 2015. "Intergenerational Correlation of Domestic Work : Does Gender Matter ?," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 117-118, pages 159-184.
    11. Posel, Dorrit & Grapsa, Erofili, 2017. "Time to learn? Time allocations among children in South Africa," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 1-10.
    12. Zlata Bruckauf & Gwyther Rees & UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti, 2017. "Children’s Involvement in Housework: Is there a case of gender stereotyping? Evidence from the International Survey of Children's Well-Being," Papers inores898, Innocenti Research Briefs.
    13. Gracia, Pablo, 2023. "Child and Adolescent Time Use and Well-Being: A Study of Current Debates and Empirical Evidence," OSF Preprints 9qmrk, Center for Open Science.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Household production; intra-household allocation; children; economics of gender; time allocation; labor supply;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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