Couples' Employment/Retirement Status and the Division of Household Tasks

Abstract

This study investigates how the employment/retirement status of both spouses impinges on each spouse's contributions to traditionally male and female household chores as well as on the couple's division of household labor. Results based on a subsample of the National Survey of Families and Households (N = 672) indicate more complex patterns than those suggested by previous research. Specifically, employment/retirement status effects on housework vary by gender and domain, as well as by wife's work history. Compared to dual-earner couples, retired wives spend more and their husbands less time on "female" chores. Husbands' contributions to "male" tasks are highest if they are retired and their wives employed, and lowest if the husband is employed and the wife retired. Retired husbands of housewives spend more time with both male and female chores than employed husbands of housewives, whereas housewives whose husbands are retired contribute less to female chores than housewives whose husbands are employed.

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