Educational attainment and housework participation among Japanese, Taiwanese, and American women across adult life transitions

Abstract

We investigate the association between women's educational levels and housework participation across cultural contexts and through different stages in the life-course. In testing the suggestion from previous research that women with higher levels of education spend less time on housework than do women with less education, we found that this argument holds true for single women in Japan, Taiwan, and the United States. Our results also indicate that for all American women and for single and married Taiwanese women without children, their numbers of years of education correlate inversely with their daily hours of domestic labour; however, this correlation does not exist for married Taiwanese women with children. Similarly, the educational levels of married Japanese women-with or without children-have no bearing on their housework participation.

The association between couples' education and gender gap in unpaid care work in India

“…Hence, age should be considered a crucial personal characteristic in implementing care work programs and policies in the country. In addition, household composition, including the presence of children and older adults, was associated with the gender gap in UCW, which is in line with previous studies (Altintas & Sullivan, 2016;Janiso et al, 2021;Kolpashnikova & Koike, 2021).…”

Solo Dance? Gender Differences in Housework among Solo Households in the United States

“…The effects of education on housework are also gendered in couple households. Previous studies show that highly educated women or mothers do less housework than their female counterparts (Gupta, Sayer, and Pearlman 2021;Killewald 2011;Kolpashnikova and Koike 2021;Sayer 2016). Compared with women with less education, highly educated women face the competing time available for housework from paid work.…”