Mobility across generations of the gender distribution of housework

This paper analyses the relationship between the gender division of housework time of parents, with children living in the parental home, and that of the same children when they become adults and form their own families. Using the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS), we exploit its panel structure jointly with detailed information on children and parent’s time use, to analyse the time devoted by parents during their children’s adolescence (between 1994 and 1999) and that of the same children about ten years later (from 2006 to 2009). The results suggest that a greater involvement of fathers in the domestic activities traditionally done by mothers is related to a reduction in gender inequality in their children’s future families: father’s involvement in domestic activities has a significant impact on their sons’ time spent in the same activities. These findings shed light on the persistence of parental behaviour across generations.