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Negotiating Domestic Labor: Women's Earnings and Housework Time in Australia

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  • Janeen Baxter
  • Belinda Hewitt

Abstract

Recent research in the United States has found that wives' absolute earnings level is more important than their earnings relative to their spouses in determining time spent on housework. Utilizing data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, this article examines whether women's housework time in Australia is associated with relative or absolute earnings and extends previous work by examining possible mechanisms linking women's earnings with their time on housework, outsourcing through the use of paid domestic help, and unmeasured heterogeneity among women. The research finds that women's housework time is more strongly affected by women's relative earnings than by their absolute earnings, and neither outsourcing nor unobserved heterogeneity can explain the relationship between women's earnings and their housework time in Australia. These results indicate that Australia has a strong male-breadwinner institutional framework that continues to hinder gender equality in paid and unpaid work.

Suggested Citation

  • Janeen Baxter & Belinda Hewitt, 2013. "Negotiating Domestic Labor: Women's Earnings and Housework Time in Australia," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(1), pages 29-53, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:femeco:v:19:y:2013:i:1:p:29-53
    DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2012.744138
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Gigi Foster & Leslie S. Stratton, 2018. "Do significant labor market events change who does the chores? Paid work, housework, and power in mixed-gender Australian households," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 31(2), pages 483-519, April.
    2. Amaia Altuzarra & Catalina Gálvez-Gálvez & Ana González-Flores, 2020. "Do Spanish Dual-Earner Couples Share Unpaid Work Equally?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 150(3), pages 731-763, August.
    3. Maria Gabriella Campolo & Antonino Di Pino, 2020. "Selectivity of Bargaining and the Effect of Retirement on Labour Division in Italian Couples," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 41(4), pages 639-657, December.
    4. Rita Pető & Balázs Reizer, 2021. "Gender differences in the skill content of jobs," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(3), pages 825-864, July.
    5. Vivien Procher & Nolan Ritter & Colin Vance, 2014. "Making dough or baking dough? Spousal housework responsibilities in Germany, 1992-2011," Schumpeter Discussion Papers SDP14004, Universitätsbibliothek Wuppertal, University Library.
    6. Anne McMunn & Lauren Bird & Elizabeth Webb & Amanda Sacker, 2020. "Gender Divisions of Paid and Unpaid Work in Contemporary UK Couples," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(2), pages 155-173, April.
    7. Ashlee Borgkvist & Vivienne Moore & Shona Crabb & Jaklin Eliott, 2021. "Critical considerations of workplace flexibility “for all” and gendered outcomes: Men being flexible about their flexibility," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(6), pages 2076-2090, November.
    8. repec:zbw:rwirep:0472 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Belinda Hewitt, 2021. "The Dynamics of Family Formation and Dissolution," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 54(4), pages 506-517, December.
    10. de Bruin, Anne & Liu, Na, 2020. "The urbanization-household gender inequality nexus: Evidence from time allocation in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    11. Kamila Kolpashnikova & Man-Yee Kan, 2020. "Hebdomadal Patterns of Compensatory Behaviour: Weekday and Weekend Housework Participation in Canada, 1986–2010," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 34(2), pages 174-192, April.
    12. Vivien Procher & Nolan Ritter & Colin Vance, 2014. "Making Dough or Baking Dough? Spousal Housework Responsibilities in Germany, 1992-2011," Ruhr Economic Papers 0472, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    13. Kamila Kolpashnikova, 2018. "American Househusbands: New Time Use Evidence of Gender Display, 2003–2016," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(3), pages 1259-1277, December.
    14. Sandra Buchler & Alfred M. Dockery, 2023. "Women’s work: myth or reality? Occupational feminisation and women’s job satisfaction in Australia," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 26(1), pages 51-83.

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