Labor and Gender Inequality

Introduction

Domestic labor refers to all of the work that is done to keep people healthy and productive. People need to be fed, clothed, cleaned up after, and cared for to remain productive members of our society. Economists estimate that as a society we spend as much time doing domestic labor as we spend in the paid labor force.

Analysis

Despite the importance of this labor to our economy and survival, it is typically overlooked and undervalued because most of it is done outside of the paid labor force and primarily by women. The division of domestic labor within families remains deeply gendered. Even as women have made gains toward equality in the political realm and in the labor market, they continue to be responsible for most domestic labor. There is, however, significant variation in how families divide domestic labor, and scholars have developed competing theories to explain the allocation of domestic labor within families, as described in this entry (Caroline and Carolyn, pp 60-64).

Gendered Division of Domestic Labor

On average, married women today spend approximately 19 hours per week doing domestic labor, compared with 10 hours done on average by married men. This division is in some ways an improvement since 1965, when married women averaged 34 hours and men averaged 5 hours per week. In the intervening years, when record numbers of married women entered the paid labor force, the primary change was a reduction in women's time in domestic labor, accompanied by a somewhat less drastic increase in men's domestic labor. Men's reluctance to do more work inside the home, despite women's increasing hours in paid labor, has helped stall equality inside and outside the home for women because the demands of domestic labor can impede women's ability to participate and excel in the paid labor ...