1. The Household Division of Labour Changes in Families Allocation of Paid and Unpaid Work ESRC Gender Equality Network 6 th December 2005 Susan Harkness University of Bristol

2. Aims Recent decades have seen a rapid rise in female employment. –What effect has this had on patterns of household employment? –How have total hours of paid work changed within households? –How have total hours of household work responded to these changes? –How have these changes been reflected in the division of household tasks?

3. Employment Strong growth in female employment, particularly among those with young children. –Between 1992 and 2002 among 25-49 year olds: female employment increased by 6 percentage points to 73%. for those with under 5s employment grew by 11 percentage points to 55%. Little change in male employment. Among couples, rise in 2 earner families. Rise in employment among lone parent families

4. Family Employment Patterns Married and Cohabiting Couples: Aged 25-49, 1992-2002

5. Lone Parents Employment and Non- Employment

6. Household Work Patterns (Age 25-49)

7. Differences by Education

9. Kids under 5

11. Hours of Work: Women Over the decade women have seen increases in their average hours of work from 20 to 23 hours per week. This is due to changing employment patterns, and increases in hours worked by part time women. Women in dual career couples work an average of 40 hours, and their hours of work are similar whether or not they have children. –Little accommodation in working hours for those with children, Instead any adjustments in working hours rely on women moving out of the labour force or into part-time work.

12. Usual Hours of Work

13. Hours of Work: Men Small decline in hours of work over the decade. But fathers continue to work longer hours than men without children. This remains true even where their partner works full-time.

14. Total Household Hours of Work For married / cohabiting couples total hours of work grew by 3 hours to 64 hours over the decade. Most of this rise is due to increasing employment. For those in dual career households a total of 86 hours are supplied. –This is little change over the decade –BUT this work pattern is increasingly observed.

15. Hours of Work by Education, Aged 25-49, 1992 and 2002

16. 19922002Change19922002Change19922002Change19922002Change LOWAllNo Kids Kids <16 Kids <5 Women17.919.3+1.425.027.0+2.013.215.2+2.08.510.7+2.2 Married / Cohabiting18.220.2+2.025.127.8+2.714.116.5+2.49.311.6+2.3 Two earner27.828.8+1.032.334.2+1.924.225.6+1.421.923.1+1.2 Both FT40.739.6-1.140.940.3-0.640.738.8-1.940.338.4-1.9 Female Breadwinner28.027.4-0.631.231.4+0.225.324.8-0.524.923.0-1.9 Single Women working31.831.0-0.736.337.2+0.924.525.5+1.021.124.4+3.3 Men37.537.1-0.436.835.9-0.938.0 037.137.8+0.7 Married / Cohabiting39.339.4+0.140.741.0+0.338.538.7+0.237.838.8+1.0 Two earner46.545.2-1.346.345.1-1.246.645.3-1.346.546.6+0.14 Both FT47.946.2-1.747.545.8-1.748.546.5-2.047.145.8-1.3 Male Breadwinner46.843.7-3.146.446.8+0.446.943.2-3.746.746.9+0.23 Single Men Employed44.042.9-1.144.243.3-0.9------

17. Earnings Fall in the gender pay gap for FT workers to 17 percent in 2005. Earnings of married / cohabiting women relative to their partners have risen from 60 to 65 percent over the decade. The proportion of women earning 90 percent or more of their partners weekly wage grew from 19 to 23 percent. In dual career couples, 42 percent of those without children and 28 percent of those with earned more than their partners.

18. Home time What are the implications for the division of labour within the home? –Specialisation models / Bargaining theories More egalitarian division of labour within the home. Substitution away from home production (meals out, cleaners, ready meals etc). –Preference / Identity models Double burden

19. Division of Household Labour

22. Hours of Non Market Work

23. Hours of Non-Market Work

24. Hours of Market and Unpaid Work and Relative Earnings

25. Hours of Market and Unpaid Work and Relative Earnings: Families with Children

26. Hours of Market and Unpaid Work and Relative Earnings: No Children

27. Conclusions Rapid rise in female employment has led to a radical change in family employment structures. Organisation of time within organisations and the home have been slow to respond to these changes. This has lead to increasing time pressure, particularly among women in dual career couples and single parents working full-time. The problem of long working hours is particularly prevalent among the well educates: –In 2002 couples where women had some higher education worked on average 73 hours / week, compared to 60 hours or less for those with O levels or less. –This difference is even starker among those with pre-school children (hours are 65 and 50 / week respectively).

28. Conclusions Assumption that children only effect womens time use remains largely true: –there is no evidence of men reducing their work hours to accommodate their partners increasing labour supply. –While dual career dads do 6 hours more unpaid work per week than those who are male breadwinners, women, they do considerably less than their partners. –Where women earn as much as their partners tasks are slightly more evenly split, and these households are particularly likely to buy back time, –But even in these households 60 percent of women take time off to look after sick children, and nannies and other paid help are more likely to do so than fathers.