The time allocation to children by parents in Europe

This article examines cross-national differences in the time parents allocate to their children using aggregate data from 15 countries collected as part of the Harmonized European Time Use Survey (HETUS). The analysis is restricted to married or cohabiting parents with at least one child under the age of seven. Results show large differences between countries; differences which appear to be associated with four main national characteristics: the countries’ level of economic development, the number of hours spent in paid work, values regarding gender roles, and post-materialist values. Some elements of the countries’ work–family policies also appear to matter but their overall effect is less conclusive.

Download Full-text

Flexplace Work and Partnered Fathers’ Time in Housework and Childcare

10.31235/osf.io/jm2yu ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Daniel L. Carlson ◽

Richard J. Petts ◽

Joanna R. Pepin

Keyword(s):

Gender Equality ◽

Time Use ◽

Employment Status ◽

Routine Care ◽

Full Time ◽

Family Policies ◽

American Time Use Survey ◽

Time Use Survey ◽

Family Benefits ◽

Work Family

Access to and use of work-family policies, especially by men, has direct implications for advancing gender equality. Using the 2017-18 American Time Use Survey Leave Module, the authors investigated the association between time spent working from home – a workplace benefit known as “flexplace” – among fathers in different-sex partnerships (n = 1,956) and their time spent in housework and childcare. The authors also considered whether these associations vary by their partners’ employment status. Findings show fathers’ use of flexplace was associated with increases in fathers’ time spent in routine housework, conditional that their partners worked full-time. Concomitantly, fathers’ use of flexplace was also associated with increases in their time spent providing childcare, particularly routine care, regardless of their partners’ labor force participation. This study updates our understanding of the links between fathers’ use of work-family benefits and their contributions to domestic labor at home, and expands our understanding of the viability of flexplace policies for achieving more equitable divisions of labor in families.

Download Full-text

How Do Women and Men Use Extra Time? Housework and Childcare after the French 35-Hour Workweek Regulation

European Sociological Review ◽

10.1093/esr/jcz039 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 35 (6) ◽

pp. 807-824 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Ariane Pailhé ◽

Anne Solaz ◽

Arthur Souletie

Keyword(s):

Time Use ◽

Time Allocation ◽

Task Specialization ◽

Exogenous Shock ◽

Men And Women ◽

Extra Time ◽

Time Use Survey ◽

Time Availability ◽

Day Of The Week ◽

Partial Implementation

Abstract This paper analyses how and when men and women devote their extra time to childcare and housework by exploiting an exogenous shock in scheduling: the partial implementation of the 35-hour workweek reform in France. Using propensity score matching and the most recent time use survey (INSEE, 2010), we show that time reallocations differ by gender and day of the week. While men dedicate their extra time to performing more housework on weekdays in the form of mainly time-flexible tasks such as repairs or shopping, they do less on weekends. This shift from weekends to weekdays is not observed for women who perform day-to-day tasks that are less transferable. Women spend more time on childcare and reduce multitasking. Overall, task specialization by gender is more pronounced, and this gendered use of similar extra time illustrates that time allocation is not only a question of time availability. In particular, men and women ‘do gender’ at weekends, when performing tasks is more visible to others.

Download Full-text

Basic Income and Time Use Democratization

Basic Income Studies ◽

10.1515/bis-2016-0012 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Corina Rodríguez Enríquez

Keyword(s):

Time Use ◽

Time Allocation ◽

Direct Consequence ◽

Unpaid Work ◽

Income Generation ◽

Paid Work ◽

Basic Income ◽

Unequal Distribution ◽

Main Obstacle ◽

Paid And Unpaid Work

AbstractTime has become a valuable asset within capitalism. “Time is money” is a well known and usually shared principle. As in regard to many other type of assets, the distribution of time is pretty unfair, as well as it is the value consideration of the time allocated for different people to different activities. The distribution of time, as well as what people can or cannot do with their time, is a key issue among feminist debates. The main argument is that time allocation to paid and unpaid work is very different and unfair between genders. Women allocate much more time to unpaid work, and men, on the contrary allocate much more time to paid work. This has a reasonable and direct consequence in terms of income generation. This unequal distribution of time (and work) represents the main obstacle to women’s economic autonomy and to overcome gender income gaps.

Download Full-text

Family policies and fathers’ working hours: cross-national differences in the paternal labour supply

Work Employment and Society ◽

10.1177/0950017015578999 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 30 (2) ◽

pp. 256-274 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Mareike Bünning ◽

Matthias Pollmann-Schult

Keyword(s):

Labour Supply ◽

Working Hours ◽

Family Policies ◽

National Differences ◽

Cross National

Download Full-text

Modelling Unpaid Housework Time in Poland on the Basis of a Time Use Survey

Folia Oeconomica Stetinensia ◽

10.2478/foli-2020-0010 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 177-189

Author(s):

Marta Hozer-Koćmiel ◽

Wojciech Kuźmiński

Keyword(s):

Time Use ◽

Time Allocation ◽

Economic Value ◽

Social Variables ◽

Number Of Children ◽

Goods And Services ◽

Housework Time ◽

Time Use Survey ◽

Care Economy ◽

Economics Of Happiness

AbstractResearch background: The paper introduces an econometric analysis of unpaid household work in Poland.Purpose: The purpose is a quantitative analysis of the relations between the time spent on unpaid housework and some selected demographic, economic and social variables.Research methodology: In the survey, the respondents were grouped by gender and type of locality. It was hypothesized that there are strong differences in the determinants of housework time by gender and type of locality. Multiple regression models for housework time and 23 demographic, social and economic variables were estimated and verified. The analysis was conducted on the basis of individual data from the Time Use Survey conducted by the Statistics Poland in 2013.Results: The empirical study found no differences in the key determinants of housework time between women and men depending on the type of locality. The main factors of influence were: paid work time, time spent meeting physiological needs (sleeping, eating, washing), time spent on learning, the number of children and, finally, economic activity.Novelty: The theoretical part outlines barely known economic theories that addressed the issue of unpaid housework. The authors describe the care economy, humanistic economics, economics of happiness, time allocation theory as well as a two-dimensional approach to poverty research. Housework (which means the unpaid activity of household members aimed at satisfying the needs of individuals forming the household) has also been out of economic mainstream categories. Even though unpopular, it has an economic value and can be replaced by market goods and services or offered by the state. The authors have been persuaded that there are tangible and intangible benefits resulting from this type of work.

Download Full-text

Determinants and impact of role-related time use allocation on self-reported health among married men and women: a cross-national comparative study

10.21203/rs.3.rs-15606/v3 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Kenisha Russell Jonsson ◽

Gustav Oberg ◽

Florence Samkange-Zeeb ◽

Nicholas Kofi Adjei

Keyword(s):

Time Use ◽

Time Allocation ◽

Working Hours ◽

Good Health ◽

Seemingly Unrelated Regression ◽

Paid Work ◽

Men And Women ◽

Number Of Children ◽

Married Men ◽

Reported Health

Abstract Background: Research on the effects of marriage on health maintains that there is a gender-specific gradient, with men deriving far greater benefits than women. One reason provided for this difference is the disproportionate amount of time spent by women on housework and childcare. However, this hypothesis has yet to be explicitly tested for these role-related time use activities. This study provides empirical evidence on the association between role-related time use activities (i.e. housework, childcare and paid work) and self-reported health among married men and women. Methods: Data from the Multinational Time Use Study (MTUS) on 32,881 men and 26,915 women from Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the US were analyzed. Seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) models and multivariable logistic regression were used to estimate the association between role-related time use activities and self-reported health among married men and women. Results: The findings showed that education, occupation and number of children in the household under 18 years old were the most consistent predictors of time allocation among married men and women. Significant gender differences were also found in time allocation, with women sacrificing paid working time or reducing time devoted to housework for childcare. Men, in contrast, were less likely to reduce paid working hours to increase time spent on childcare, but instead reduced time allocation to housework. Allocating more time to paid work and childcare was associated with good health, whereas time spent on housework was associated with poor health, especially among women. Conclusions: Time allocation to role-related activities have differential associations on health, and the effects vary by gender and across countries. To reduce the gender health gap among married men and women, public policies need to take social and gender roles into account.

Download Full-text

Gender Norms, Work-Family Policies, and Labor Force Participation among Immigrant and Native-born Women in Western Europe

Socius Sociological Research for a Dynamic World ◽

10.1177/2378023118804701 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 4 ◽

pp. 237802311880470 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Christel Kesler

Keyword(s):

Labor Force ◽

Labor Force Participation ◽

Western Europe ◽

Gender Norms ◽

Minority Women ◽

Paid Work ◽

Women's Labor ◽

Family Policies ◽

Work Family ◽

Women's Labor Force Participation

Though women’s labor force participation has increased over recent decades, it remains lower than men’s in nearly every advanced democracy. Some groups of migrant and ethnic minority women have especially low rates of labor force participation, which is often attributed to cultures of origin that are less normatively supportive of women’s paid work outside the home. I argue in this paper that the gender norms women have been exposed to in their families and countries of origin interact with work-family policies to shape patterns of labor force participation. Cultural and familial norms about women’s employment outside the home are influential for women’s labor force participation in contexts of weak work-family policies. However, they cease to matter in determining women’s labor force participation in contexts of strong work-family policies.

Download Full-text

Opposition to Civil Rights for Legal Migrants in Central and Eastern Europe

East European Politics and Societies and Cultures ◽

10.1177/0888325408327847 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 23 (2) ◽

pp. 146-164 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Marcel Coenders ◽

Marcel Lubbers ◽

Peer Scheepers

Keyword(s):

Civil Rights ◽

Central And Eastern Europe ◽

The Other ◽

Economic Conditions ◽

Eu Member States ◽

National Differences ◽

National Characteristics ◽

Eu Candidate Countries ◽

Low Levels ◽

Cross National

We set out to answer three questions: (a) to what extent do (former) EU candidate countries differ from Western European countries regarding opposition to civil rights for legal migrants? (b) to what extent do the (former) EU candidate countries differ among themselves in terms of this particular anti-immigrant sentiment, that is, opposition to civil rights for legal migrants? and (c) to what extent can we explain such cross-national differences, considering cross-national demographic or economic conditions, taking into account individual differences? We found that former EU candidate countries were really on comparable levels as EU member states in terms of opposition to civil rights for legal migrants. We found rather strong differences with countries like Estonia, Latvia and Hungary standing out, whereas countries like Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Turkey showed low levels. We found that these differences were (rather strongly) explained by the migrant stock in the country. Although none of the other national characteristics turned out to reach significance, their parameters were in the direction we proposed.

Download Full-text

Determinants and impact of role-related time use allocation on self-reported health among married men and women: a cross-national comparative study

10.21203/rs.3.rs-15606/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Kenisha Russell Jonsson ◽

Gustav Oberg ◽

Florence Samkange-Zeeb ◽

Nicholas Kofi Adjei

Keyword(s):

Time Use ◽

Time Allocation ◽

Working Hours ◽

Good Health ◽

Seemingly Unrelated Regression ◽

Paid Work ◽

Men And Women ◽

Number Of Children ◽

Married Men ◽

Reported Health

Abstract Background: Research on the effects of marriage on health has largely maintained that there is a distinctly gender-specific gradient in health, with men deriving far greater benefits than women. One reason provided for these differences is the disproportionate amount of time spent by women on housework activities and childcare. However, this hypothesis has yet to be explicitly tested for these role-related time use activities. This study provides empirical evidence on the associations between role-related time use activities (i.e. housework, childcare and paid work) and self-reported health among married men and women.Methods: Data from the Multinational Time Use Study (MTUS) on 32,881 men and 26,915 women from Germany, Italy, Spain, UK and the US were analyzed. Seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) models and multivariable logistic regression were used to estimate the association between role-related time use activities and self-reported health among married men and women.Results: The findings showed that education, occupation and number of children were the most consistent predictors of time allocation among married men and women. Significant gender differences were also found in time allocation, with women sacrificing paid working time or reducing time devoted to housework for childcare. Men, in contrast, were less likely to reduce paid working hours to increase time allocation to childcare, but instead reduced time allocation to housework. Allocating more time to paid work and childcare was associated with good health, whereas time spent in housework was associated with poor health, especially among women.Conclusions: Time allocations to role-related activities have differential associations on health and these effects varies by gender and across countries. To reduce the gender health gap among married men and women, public policies need to take into account social and gender roles.

Download Full-text