Three hypotheses of husbands' participation in domestic labor (i.e., housework and child care) are examined: (1) the relative resources hypothesis states that the more resources (e.g., socioeconomic characteristics) a husband has relative to his wife, the less domestic labor he does; (2) the sex role ideology hypothesis maintains that the more traditional the husband's sex role attitudes, the less domestic labor he performs; and (3) the demandlresponse capability hypothesis states that the more domestic task demands on a husband and the greater his capacity to respond to them, the greater his participation in domestic labor. OLS regression results from a nationally-representative sample of employed persons overwhelmingly supports the demandlresponse capability hypothesis. The analysis suggests that neither attitude change nor education will alter the division of domestic labor. Rather, findings indicate that younger men who have children, employed wives, and jobs that do not require long work hours are most likely to be involved in household activities.Current interest in changing gender roles is fostering extensive research on changing attitudes toward those roles (Thomton et al., 1983) and on women's increasing labor force participation (Ferber, 1982). Yet, men's participation in domestic activities, also an indicator of changing gender roles, has received much less attention. Most researchers who have examined the sexual division of labor in the home conclude that men's involvement in domestic work has changed little in recent decades (Vanek, 1974;Glazer, 1980). This seems true even of men with employed wives (Walker and Woods, 1976; Geerken and Gove, 1983). In order to understand better the structure of gender role behavior, we must investigate the factors influencing husbands' participation (or lack of it) in domestic activities. This paper examines determinants of husbands' domestic labor (i.e., housework and child care) time in attempting to adjudicate among three hypotheses of the division of domestic labor:1. the more resources (i.e., education, earnings, and occupational position) a husband has, both in absolute terms and relative to his wife, the less domestic labor he does;

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract