Stalled or Uneven Gender Revolution? A Long‐Term Processual Framework for Understanding Why Change Is Slow

Abstract

Recently much attention has been focused on whether the gender transformation of paid and unpaid work in society referred to as the gender revolution has hit a wall, or at least stalled. In this article, we discuss key trends in the gender division of labor across 13 developed countries over a 50‐year period. These trends show little decisive evidence for a stall but rather a continuing, if uneven, long‐term trend in the direction of greater gender equality. We set out a theoretical framework for understanding slow change in the division of unpaid work and care (lagged generational change). We argue that, through a long‐term view of the processes of change, this framework can help address why progress in the convergence in paid and unpaid work promised by the gender revolution has been so slow.

How Cities Erode Gender Inequality: A New Theory and Evidence from Cambodia

“…Macro-level studies often explore cross-national trends: e.g. whether higher rates of female employment are associated with more equitable divisions of leadership/ care work (Cha and Thébaud, 2009;Kroska and Elman, 2009;Sullivan et al, 2018;Sani and Quaranta, 2017;Shu and Meagher, 2018;Torre, 2019). These macrostudies incorporate national averages, usually omitting subnational variation.…”

Social Change and the Gendered Division of Household Labor in Canada

“…In recasting arguments about time availability and gender essentialism into broader perspectives regarding structural and cultural change, we build on Sullivan et al. 's () observation that, “no real consensus emerged as to the relative importance of these [older] explanations” (p. 265, emphasis added). Time availability, for example, is a critical component of our structural argument but it is not merely a competition among two worlds of work, one paid and the other unpaid.…”

“…At a theoretical level we contribute to the literature by recasting older arguments tied to exchange theory (e.g., Bittman et al 2003;Hook 2006), time availability (e.g., Cunningham 2001), and gender role explanations (e.g., Chesters 2013) into a framework that builds on work by scholars such as Cherlin (2016) and Goldscheider, Bernhardt, and Lappegård (2015). With respect to the older arguments Sullivan, Gershuny, and Robinson (2018) note that, "no real consensus emerged as to the relative importance of these explanations" (p. 265). As we outline below, evidence about the changing patterns of time allocation in the gender division of household labor can potentially be understood as a consequence of cultural, structural, and demographic changes in society.…”

Housework share and fertility preference in four East Asian countries in 2006 and 2012

“…One more crucial avenue for future research is to analyse the regional trends in domestic division of labour over time using more explicitly comparable data in a way similar to what has been done for European and Anglophone data (e.g., Kan, Sullivan, and Gershuny 2011;Sullivan, Gershuny, and Robinson 2018). These trends are likely to offer more precise insights into the trajectory of the gender revolution in East Asia and, by extension, bring new insights into how fertility rates in the region will perform in the future.…”

“…In addition, Suzuki (2013) argues that declining fertility in East Asia is the result of endemic gender inequality and the Confucian family ideals in East Asian societies. Similarly, McDonald (2009) suggests that gender inequality in East Asian societies exacerbates work-family conflict, and the lack of economic security among women results in the low fertility rates in the region.…”