Educational Heterogamy and the Division of Paid Labour in the Family: A Comparison of Present-Day Belgium and Sweden

Abstract

This study builds on the long-standing theoretical interest in the importance of comparative advantages between partners for the division of paid labour in the family. It adopts a couple perspective on women’s relative labour market participation by considering the role of educational heterogamy. Additionally, it takes account of the family life cycle by means of the presence of (young) children. The importance of these two factors for women’s relative labour market participation is compared between Belgium and Sweden—two European countries that share socio-economic features but differ regarding labour market and social policies relevant for gender equality and potential gains to specialization. Multinomial logistic diagonal reference models are used to analyse the pooled cross-sectional data of EU-SILC 2004–2008. Contrary to expectations, we find that comparative advantages between partners, as measured by educational heterogamy, are of only minor importance for determining the couple’s division of paid labour in such diverse countries as Belgium and Sweden. Our results show that women’s relative labour market participation is less education-driven in Sweden than in Belgium, and is more related to the life cycle effect of the presence of (young) children, confirming more egalitarianism and family friendliness in Scandinavia than in continental Europe.

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