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Women’s investment in career and the household division of labour

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  • Catherine Sofer
  • Claire Thibout

Abstract

This paper examines how partners in a couple share domestic work according to the woman’s investment in career. Investment is measured relatively to other women or to the partner. While previous studies mainly focused on the influence of wages and earnings, we extend them by considering more dimensions describing the intensity of the woman’s attachment to the labour market. We use the 2010 French Time Use survey to estimate a model of household division of labour in dual earner couples. We find that the more women are invested in career, the less domestic work they perform during weekdays, which is partly substituted by their partners but only on weekend days. The sharing of tasks is thus less unequal in those couples. However, women still spend more time than their partners on average performing domestic work, even when the woman outperforms him in career, implying no role reversal in the division of labour.

Suggested Citation

  • Catherine Sofer & Claire Thibout, 2019. "Women’s investment in career and the household division of labour," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(60), pages 6535-6557, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:51:y:2019:i:60:p:6535-6557
    DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2019.1644440
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    Cited by:

    1. Elisabeth Cudeville & Martine Gross & Catherine Sofer, 2020. "Measuring Gender Norms in Domestic Work: A Comparison between Homosexual and Heterosexual Couples," Post-Print halshs-02468956, HAL.
    2. Fortin, Nicole M. & Bell, Brian & Böhm, Michael, 2017. "Top earnings inequality and the gender pay gap: Canada, Sweden, and the United Kingdom," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 107-123.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • 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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