Division of Household Labor and Marital Satisfaction in China, Japan, and Korea

Takashi Oshio, 隆士 小塩, Kayo Nozaki and Miki Kobayashi

No 502, PIE/CIS Discussion Paper from Center for Intergenerational Studies, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University

Abstract: In this study, we compare the association of marital satisfaction with the division of labor between husband and wife in Asia, based on Chinese, Japanese, and Korean General Social Surveys in 2006 (N = 2,346, 997, and 990, respectively). Results show that in all three countries, wives are less satisfied than husbands with marriage, mainly because wives do disproportionately more housework than husbands. Aside from this common gender difference, there are noticeable differences among the three countries. Chinese couples are relatively in favor of an egalitarian division of labor in terms of both market work and housework. Japanese couples are supportive of traditional specialization, with the wives flexibly shifting their efforts between market work and housework. Korean couples are under pressure from conflicts between the wife‘s labor force participation and the traditional division of labor in the household.

Keywords: Division of household labor; gender difference; marital satisfaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2011-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-hme and nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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