Unemployment and the Division of Housework in Europe

an article by Tanja van der Lippe and Lukas Norbutas (Utrecht University, the Netherlands) and Judith Treas (University of California, Irvine, USA) published in Work, employment and society Volume 32 Issue 4 (August 2018)

Abstract

Unemployment, especially in insecure times, has devastating effects on families, but it is not clear what happens to domestic work.

On the one hand, unemployment frees up time for more housework by both men and women. On the other hand, once unemployed, women may take on more additional housework than men do, either because they capitalize on their time to act out traditional gender roles or because unemployment compounds women’s general disadvantage in household bargaining.

Multi-level analyses based on the European Social Survey show that both men and women perform more housework when unemployed. However, the extra domestic work for unemployed women is greater than for unemployed men. They also spend more time on housework when their husband is unemployed.

Compared to their employed counterparts, unemployed women, but not men, perform even more housework in a country where the unemployment rate is higher.

Full text (PDF 20pp)

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Sharing the load? Partners’ relative earnings and the division of domestic labour

an article by Clare Lyonette and Rosemary Crompton (University of Warwick, UK) published in Work Employment & Society Volume 29 Number 1 (February 2015)

Abstract

One of the most pressing issues contributing to the persistence of gender inequality is the gendered division of domestic labour. Despite their entry into paid employment, women still carry out more domestic work than men, limiting their ability to act on an equal footing within the workplace.

This qualitative research adds to the ongoing debate concerning the reasons for the persistence of the gendered nature of domestic work, by comparing working women who earn more, those who earn around the same and those who earn less than their male partners, as well as examining women’s absolute incomes.

On average, men whose partners earn more than they do carry out more housework than other men, although women in these partnerships still do more.

However, these women actively contest their male partner’s lack of input, simultaneously ‘doing’ and ‘undoing’ gender.

The article also identifies class differences in the ‘sharing’ of domestic work.

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Dual careers, time-use and satisfaction levels: evidence from the British Household Panel Survey

an article by Daniel Wheatley and Zhongmin Wu (Nottingham Trent University, UK) published in Industrial Relations Journal Volume 45 Issue 5 (September 2014)

Abstract

This article empirically examines time-use and its impact on satisfaction levels among dual career households in a post-industrial economy, the UK.

Analysis explores the 1993–2009 British Household Panel Survey using panel probit regression.

The evidence reveals distinctions in time-use relative to gender, occupations and employment sector. Long hours persist among managers and professionals. The uneven division of household labour, further, continues to burden women with extensive amounts of housework and care.

Satisfaction with working hours and amount/use of leisure time are lower among women, especially the public sector professionals. Provision of care, occupation and partner employment characteristics represent important satisfaction determinants present among women, while income (including partner's income) only has relevance among men.

Housework does not itself generate dissatisfaction. It is the overload of household tasks, due to inequality in the household division of labour, which constrains many highly skilled working women reducing satisfaction with time-use and life overall.

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Work beyond employment: representations of informal economic activities

an article by Colin C Williams and Sara Nadin (University of Sheffield) published in Work Employment & Society Volume 26 Number 2 (April 2012)

Abstract

For much of the previous century, the informal sector was largely represented as a residue of a previous mode of production confined to marginal populations and gradually disappearing due to the inevitable and natural shift towards the formal economy across the globe.

Over the past quarter of a century, however, articles published in Work, Employment and Society have been at the forefront of re-reading the informal sector.

This article reveals how this body of literature has shown informal economic activities to be a persistent and ubiquitous feature of the economic landscape, mapped the complex and variable dynamics of formal and informal work in different populations, transcended simplistic universal structure/agency explanations for the persistence of informal work by developing context-bound understandings, and challenged the formal/informal dichotomy which represents the formal and informal sectors as separate hostile worlds.

The article concludes by highlighting some possible future directions for research on this topic.

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