Housework and gender inequality across Europe

The paper focuses on the factors influencing sharing of the domestic work in the European countries. Many of the previous studies have offered the individual level explanations, taking into account only the individual characteristic when predicting the spouses’ contribution to the chores. Using multilevel regression models, we try to combine the individual level factors with the country’s level ones in order to draw the explanatory model for the gendered sharing of housework within the couples, across the European societies. The analysis provides support for most theories that we have tested: the resource theory, the dependency/ bargaining hypothesis are confirmed: in a couple, when one of the partners has more resources or a better status, the other spouse uses relatively more hours for the housework. On the other hand, religious and gender values play an important role: the more secular and more oriented towards gender-equality a couple is in thinking, the more equally the partners share their housework. However, on average, all over the world, women use more hours for housework than men do. The country level indicators seems to be less important, but the more affluent societies, the post-communist ones, the ones where women are more present in the public life, the less materialist ones, and those where Catholicism is not the dominant religion determine a more equalitarian sharing of the housework.