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What Explains the Gender Gap in Schlepping? Testing Various Explanations for Gender Differences in Household-Serving Travel

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  • Brian D. Taylor
  • Kelcie Ralph
  • Michael Smart

Abstract

type="main"> Many gender differences in travel have begun to converge. Has convergence occurred for household-serving travel, which constitutes a very large and growing share of all trips? Moreover, what explains the division of household-serving travel in heterosexual couples? In answering these questions, we test the salience of three theories about the gendered division of household labor: (1) time availability, (2) microeconomic, and (3) gender socialization. Using data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) from 2003 to 2012, we calculated the female-to-male ratio of household-serving trips in several types of households (i.e., singles vs. couples and male vs. female breadwinner households). There was some empirical support for each theory, but we find the most consistent and compelling evidence for gender socialization. We observe substantial gender differences in child- and household-serving trips apart from household formation; even in households where women earn more, are better educated, or work more hours than their partners, women still make about half again as many child-serving and grocery-shopping trips as their male partners. Despite dramatic changes in women's labor force participation over the past half-century, the gender division of household-serving travel remains strong.

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  • Brian D. Taylor & Kelcie Ralph & Michael Smart, 2015. "What Explains the Gender Gap in Schlepping? Testing Various Explanations for Gender Differences in Household-Serving Travel," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 96(5), pages 1493-1510, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:socsci:v:96:y:2015:i:5:p:1493-1510
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    3. Lingqian Hu, 2021. "Gender differences in commuting travel in the U.S.: interactive effects of race/ethnicity and household structure," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 909-929, April.
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    6. Blumenberg, Evelyn & Schouten, Andrew & Brown, Anne, 2022. "Who’s in the driver’s seat? Gender and the division of car use in auto-deficit households," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 14-26.
    7. Hsin-Ping Hsu, 2023. "Domestic burden in an unfamiliar new homeland: gender, immigration, and household-serving trip frequencies," Transportation, Springer, vol. 50(6), pages 2319-2337, December.
    8. Klein, Nicholas J. & Guerra, Erick & Smart, Michael J., 2018. "The Philadelphia story: Age, race, gender and changing travel trends," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 19-25.
    9. Michael J. Smart & Nicholas J. Klein, 2020. "Disentangling the role of cars and transit in employment and labor earnings," Transportation, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 1275-1309, June.
    10. Shirgaokar, Manish, 2019. "Operationalizing gendered transportation preferences: A psychological framework incorporating time constraints and risk aversion," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 10-18.
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