Housework sharing among dual-earner French Couples : gender inequality remains Sophie Ponthieux, Amandine Schreiber INSEE, France

Plan Theoretical background and problematic: What impact of women’s contribution to household’s income on the sharing of housework Use of time and sharing of housework among French couples of employees What happens when women earn more than their partner? Characteristics of these « deviant » couples The impact of the Women’s « economic power »

Plan Theoretical background and problematic Use of time and sharing of work among French couples of employees What happens when women earn more than their partner? Characteristics of these « deviant » couples The impact of the Women’s « economic power »

Housework remains primarily « women’s work » despite the entry of women into the labor force

Explaining gender inequalities Human Capital (Becker, 1981) Sociological theories of resources and power (Blood and Wolf, 1960, Brines, 1993, 1994, Halleröd, 2005) Economic dependency (Brines, 1994, Sorensen and MacLanahan, 1987, Halleröd, 2005) Man or woman … « Doing gender » (Brines,1994, Greenstein, 2000, Bittman 2003)

Problematic What impact of women’s contribution to the household income on the sharing of Housework? Descriptive results on housework sharing when women earn more than their partner Econometric results on the impact of an indicator of « women’s economic power » Analysis restricted to couples where both partners are employees (1500 couples)

Plan Theoretical background and problematic Use of time and sharing of work among French couples of employees What happens when women earn more than their partner? Characteristics of these « deviant » couples The impact of the Women’s « economic power »

Some elements about Housework within couples of employees  Participation  Duration

Participation in housework and care activities

Some elements about Housework within couples of employees  Participation  Duration

Plan Theoretical background and problematic Use of time and sharing of work among French couples of employees What happens when women earn more than their partner? Characteristics of these « deviant » couples The impact of the Women’s « economic power »

« Deviant » couples Woman's wage < Man'sWoman's wage = or > Man's Repartition of couples of two employees 76%24%

Sharing of housework All couples of two employees Woman's wage < Man's Woman's wage = or > Man's Proportion of total housework performed by the man33,1%31,9%36,9% Proportion of couples who employ a cleaner help7,5%7,2%8,5%

Structure of housework time of couples in % Total Woman's wage < Man's Woman's wage = or > Man's «Core» (food, cleaning, laundry)55,256,052,6 Childcare14,514,215,2 Other tasks30,329,832,2 Total100

Participation in domestic activities Participation rate Total Woman's wage < Man's Woman's wage = or > Man's in % M en W omen M en W omen M en W omen « Core» (food, cleaning, laundry) « Core» + household management + shopping (A) Total : (A) + repairs, gardening, other domestic tasks

Total housework time (hours and minutes) All couples of two employees Woman's wage < Man's Woman's wage = or > Man's Men WomenMenWomenMenWomen 2h204h062h154h102h343h56 6h266h256h30

Plan Theoretical background and problematic Use of time and sharing of work among French couples of employees What happens when women earn more than their partner? Characteristics of these « deviant » couples The impact of the Women’s « economic power »

Some characteristics of these « deviant » couples 27% are not married : (versus 18% in other couples) Women spend longer time in paid work compared to their partner (122%, according to diaries) The Income by consumption unit is slightly higher in these households They have on average less children and younger They are on average younger themselves : women 37, men 39 (versus respectively 39 and 41)

Higher proportion of highly educated women All couples of employees Woman's wage < Man's Woman's wage = or > Man's Individual characteristics of partnersMWMWMW Ends scholarship before Baccalauréat63,054,662,859,163,540,5 Baccalauréat12,616,012,216,913,913,0 Higher education24,429,424,924,022,646,5 Total (in %)100 Some characteristics of these « deviant » couples

Higher occupational status of the women All couples of two employees Woman's wage < Man's Woman's wage = or > Man's Individual characteristics of partnersMWMWMW Managers and professionals20,510,823,79,010,616,5 Technicians and associate professionals28,725,827,921,531,239,2 Clerks, services and sales workers12,552,410,557,018,738,1 Skilled manual workers30,14,529,35,232,52,2 Unskilled manual workers8,16,58,57,36,94,1 Total (in %)100 Some characteristics of these « deviant » couples

Higher proportion of women working in predominantly male industry All couples of two employees Woman's wage < Man's Woman's wage = or > Man's % of Women in « male » industry14,513,417,8 % of Men in « female » industry27,025,930,5

Some characteristics of these « deviant » couples All these characteristics may reflect nontraditional « gender ideologies » Hard to predict the impact of « doing gender » on Housework sharing

Plan Theoretical background and problematic Use of time and sharing of work among French couples of employees What happens when women earn more than their partner? Characteristics of these « deviant » couples The impact of the Women’s « economic power »

What impact of Women’s economic power on Men’s Share of Housework? Relative economic power (Sorensen and Mac Lanahan, 1987): RC Woman = (wage Woman – wage Man ) / (wage Woman + wage Man ) Varying from - 0,84 to + 0,54 (mean: - 0,167) Intra-couples wage gap is smaller than the average gender wage gap

Once controlled for all characteristics, the influence of women’s economic power appears significant

Explicative factors of proportion of housework performed by the man Influence Couples’ characteristics Woman’s economic power+++ Man’s usual paid work time / woman’s - Household and family care total time spent by both spouses+++ Men professional characteristics Occupational status ns Industry Predominantly « male » industryns Predominantly «female » industry++ Regular paid work schedules++ Women professional characteristicsns

BUT : variability is very low All couples of employees Woman's wage < Man's Woman's wage = or > Man's Woman wage/man wage78,262,6127,9 Proportion of housework performed by the man33,131,936,9

Conclusion « The persistence of responsabilities of married women for childcare and other housework in all advanced societies may only be a legacy of powerful forces from the past and may disappear or be greatly attenuated in the near future (…) A person’s sex would then no longer be a good predictor of earnings and household activities. It is still too early to tell how far Western societies will move in this direction » Gary S. Becker, Human Capital, effort and the sexual division of labor, 1985.