Time spent on household work: the determinants of gender inequality

Abstract

The article highlights the factors shaping the distribution of household duties and family care responsibilities between partners. It is based on the data from the Time Use Survey conducted by the Russian Federal State Statistics Service in 2014. The authors attempt to measure the contribution of the main factors to the gender gap in household duties.

The paper argues that the determinants of the gender gap in household work are predominantly partners’ health, the number and the age of their children, partners’ job status and form of employment, female contribution to the family income, labor-saving technologies, family composition, small number of living rooms and a small-size settlement.

The evidence shows that the idea of an unfinished gender transition, implying that both economic and vestigious soicolcultural motives behind partners’ distribution of household tasks still remain, proves to be true. The high levels of female employment and income lead to lower female participation in household work only on weekdays, whereas at the weekends women seek to compensate for their role as the “main provider of home services” for the housemates.