The Division of Labour Within the Household and Life Satisfaction

Historically, the division of labour within the household has been characterized by women allocating more time to domestic labour and men allocating more time to market labour. Although pressure for gender equality in both domestic and market labour is rising, it is unclear how the division of labour within the household relates to life satisfaction. Using panel data from the Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (2002–2021) and couple-fixed effects models we estimate, by gender, the relationship between own and partner’s time spent on various household responsibilities and life satisfaction using three different measures of time use for four household responsibilities. Household responsibilities are divided into routine chores, taking care of own children, outdoor tasks, and paid work. Our main findings include that household responsibilities that significantly relate to life satisfaction differ by gender. However, outdoor tasks (maintenance and gardening) positively relate to the life satisfaction of both men and women. We further find that women’s life satisfaction is more sensitive to comparisons to others, both within and outside the home, than men’s life satisfaction. The results also suggest that men experience increased life satisfaction if they spend more time on household responsibilities traditionally performed by women and less time on paid work. Conversely, women's life satisfaction does not increase with greater spousal contribution to these tasks but does increase when they themselves spend less time on paid work.