The Parenthood Effect on Gender Inequality: Explaining the Change in Paid and Domestic Work When British Couples Become Parents

Abstract

This study examines the importance of couples' earnings and gender role attitudes before having children for how both partners change their contributions to housework and paid work from before pregnancy to the second year of parenthood. Previous research explored the importance of women's relative income and both partners' gender role attitudes for the extent to which the division of labour become more traditional among new parents. This research extends this literature by also considering women's absolute earnings, which may be crucial given the very high costs of formal childcare in Britain. As the transition to parenthood is a critical junction in terms of gender inequality, the findings contribute to our understanding of what is driving the long-term increase in social and economic inequalities between men and women over the life course. The statistical analysis of 310 couples is based on sixteen waves of the British Household Panel Survey (1992-2007) and applies OLS models with Heckman selection correction. The findings suggest that higher wages and more egalitarian attitudes of British women before motherhood reduce the shift towards a more traditional division of labour more than women's relative economic position in the household.

Labour market entries and exits of women from different origin countries in the UK

“…These results are hardly surprising given the previous empirical research that found a similar association (Jeon 2008;Schober 2013;Smeaton 2006). More interesting is that we could not find this relationship among Pakistani & Bangladeshi women in relation to labour market exits.…”

Parentalidad y división del trabajo doméstico en España, 2002-2010

“…The pioneering analysis of Sanchez and Thomson (1997) for the United States showed that the time that women dedicated to domestic tasks increased considerably after the birth of their fi rst child -although they did not take into account to what extent the increase was due to routine tasks or to childcare -, while the time dedicated to domestic tasks by men remained quite stable over time. Similar results have been found in the UK (Schober, 2011). In Australia, Baxter et al, (2008) showed that after the birth of the fi rst child, women increased the time they spent on routine domestic tasks.…”

“…mostró que el tiempo que las mujeres dedicaban al trabajo doméstico aumentaba considerablemente tras la llegada del primer hijo -aunque no tenían en cuenta hasta qué punto el aumento se debía a tareas rutinarias o a cuidados-, mientras que la dedicación de los hombres se mantenía bastante estable a lo largo del tiempo. Se han descrito resultados similares para el Reino Unido (Schober, 2011). En Australia, Baxter et al (2008) mostraron que, tras el nacimiento del primer hijo, las mujeres aumentaban su trabajo domésti-co en tareas rutinarias.…”

Institutions as reference points for parents-to-be in European societies: a theoretical and analytical framework

“…First, compared to older cohorts or age groups, young couples today actually do divide paid and unpaid work more equally during early stages of the life course (Bühlmann, Elcheroth and Tettamanti 2010;Fuwa and Cohen 2007). Second, in many countries these initial egalitarian divisions are followed by a traditionalization of gender roles over the course of family formation (Evertsson and Nermo 2007;Fox 2009;Grunow, Schulz and Blossfeld 2012;Kühhirt 2012;Miller 2007Miller , 2010Schober 2013). Third, patterns of labour division established upon entering parenthood have been found to persist during later stages of the life course (Deutsch 1999;Gershuny, Bittman and Brice 2005;Grunow, Schulz and Blossfeld 2012;Hays 1996;Walzer 1998).…”