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Inequalities in Unpaid Work: A Cross-National Comparison

  • Chapter
Handbook on Well-Being of Working Women

Part of the book series: International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life ((IHQL))

Abstract

This chapter reviews the main theoretical perspectives and key recent empirical research on the gender division of housework. We focus on unpaid housework, but where relevant also consider childcare. The chapter starts with an overview of research on time use in households and examines variation in domestic work time in relation to individual and household characteristics and across countries. We then review the main theoretical arguments advanced to explain the continuing gender division of household labor focusing on recent developments and debates. Finally we examine the consequences of gender divisions in household labor for wellbeing focusing on time pressure, work-family conflict and general happiness using data from the International Social Survey Program. Our empirical findings show that women continue to spend more time on housework than men and have a larger share of routine housework. In addition, housework time increases perceived time pressure and work-family conflict and decreases women’s happiness.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Social Science Research, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD, Australia

    Janeen Baxter

  2. Department of Sociology, National Taipei University, San Shia, New Taipei City, Taiwan

    Tsui-o Tai

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  1. Janeen Baxter
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  2. Tsui-o Tai
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Correspondence to Janeen Baxter .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management College of Business Administration, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, Iowa, USA

    Mary L. Connerley

  2. Department of Management and Marketing School of Management, Rhode Island College, Providence, Rhode Island, USA

    Jiyun Wu

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Baxter, J., Tai, To. (2016). Inequalities in Unpaid Work: A Cross-National Comparison. In: Connerley, M., Wu, J. (eds) Handbook on Well-Being of Working Women. International Handbooks of Quality-of-Life. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9897-6_36

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9897-6_36

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9896-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9897-6

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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