The parenthood effect: what explains the increase in gender inequality when British couples become parents? Pia Schober London School of Economics

Motivation Gender inequality in time allocations and wages widen from parenthood Few studies exploring this transition include changes in paid and domestic work Most only describe change (Gershuny 2003) or based on small non-representative samples (e.g. Singley and Hynes 2005) Mostly US evidence What pre-parental factors can explain change in couples division of labour after becoming parents?

TheoriesExplanatory factors Neo-classical economic theory Resource-bargaining approach Relative earnings (substitution effect) Absolute earnings (income effect) Doing gender approach Social exchange theory Gender role attitudes Reinforcing dependency of pre-parental division of labour

Hypotheses A couples division of childcare, housework and paid work expected to be less traditional: H1: The higher the womans relative earnings H2: The higher the womans absolute earnings and the lower the mans H3: The more egalitarian the womans and the mans gender role attitudes H4: The less traditional their pre-parental division of labour

Research Design British Household Panel Survey ( ) Sample of 549 cohabiting couples becoming parents Women older than 20 years Focus on 2nd year after birth Ordered and binary logistic regressions of couples childcare, housework and paid work division 1/3 missing data imputed through chained equations Not considered: maternity leave and interdependencies

Dependent variables Whether mother has main childcare responsibility or father equally or more responsible Womens weekly housework hours as % of couples total in quartile categories Womens weekly paid work hours as % of couples total in quartile categories

1 st birth Change in couples division of labour

B irth Change in paid work and housework hours

Explanatory variables Womens relative hourly earnings Mens monthly earnings and womens hourly wage rate Womens and mens gender role attitudes Womens pre-parental housework and paid work share Controls: Both partners education, womens age, age difference Relationship duration, marital status Age and sex of 1st child Whether will have 2nd child within 3 years Job dissatisfaction and employment sector Survey year

Modelling Divison of paid work, housework and childcare 1) Additive effects of earnings and gender role attitudes 2) Including pre-parental division of labour Womens and mens absolute time: 3) Additive effects of earnings and gender role attitudes 4) Including pre-parental division of labour

Results I

Results II

Summary and conclusion Pre-parental division of labour and gender role attitudes account for most change Relative earnings not significant for shift towards greater traditionalism Womens absolute earnings significant for housework division (increasing mens housework time) Contrast with US results may point to greater choice of work and care arrangements in UK

Modelling strategy