Gender Ideology, Household Behavior, and Backlash in Urban China

Abstract

This article analyzes gender attitudes and behaviors of husbands and wives across three urban Chinese cohorts. Whilewomen remain egalitarian in gender ideology across cohorts, the percentage of men who hold egalitarian gender attitudes declines significantly across cohorts. At the same time, the division of household labor has become somewhat less inequitable for women; however, their expectations of equality appear to have changed faster than the division of labor. Men's attitudes reflect a backlash to egalitarian pressures from their wives and the state, with significantly negative implications for their partner's marriage quality.

Division of Household Labor and Marital Satisfaction in China, Japan, and Korea

“…This likely reflects an egalitarian division of housework as well as market work for Chinese couples, as observed by Pimentel (2006). In fact, dual earning is welcome by both husbands and wives in China, unlike in Japan and Korea.…”

“…This study cannot identify the reason for their egalitarian attitudes from the data. One possible explanation is, however, that the progressive ideology of gender equality introduced by the communist regime-combined with the fact that a single earner's wage income is often not sufficient to make a living in China-may have contributed to an egalitarian attitude towards the division of household labor (Pimentel, 2006). Third, our observations are in line with the hypothesis that Japanese couples are in favor of the traditional household specialization, a result consistent with that of Lee and Ono 19 (2008).…”

“…Although traditional gender norms still persist, the division of labor has become more equal and people now have more egalitarian gender attitudes than in the past (Lynne, 2002;Pimentel, 2000Pimentel, , 2006Zuo & Bian, 2001). Unfortunately, most previous research was based on data collected before 2000.…”

Gender differences in environmental behaviors in China

“…Second, despite their heavy participation in the paid labor force, women in contemporary China shoulder a disproportionate share of domestic work-suffering from the infamous ''double burden'' or ''second shift'' as do western women (e.g., Pimentel 2006;Chen 2005). In 2001, the average time spent on domestic housework per day for Chinese women was 4.01 and 2.9 h for urban women specifically.…”

The Care Economy in Post-Reform China: Feminist Research on Unpaid and Paid Work and Well-Being

“…However, the traditional mentality that domestic care is a natural duty of women endures. Men, thus, resist taking on more unpaid care work, and women hesitate to negotiate a more equal distribution of care burden and leisure time (Pimentel 2006). As such, the paid work-mental health relationship may not be gendered because paid work is socially expected of both women and men; however, the relationship between unpaid care work and mental health may differ between women and men because doing unpaid work is in conflict with a masculine identity, but consistent with a feminine identity.…”