Reconsidering the relationship between home appliance ownership and married women’s labor supply: Evidence from Brazil

Kirstin Munro ()
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Kirstin Munro: Department of Economics, New School For Social Research, USA

No 2509, Working Papers from New School for Social Research, Department of Economics

Abstract: A body of literature in conventional labor economics contends with multiple endogeneity concerns inexamining the impact of purportedly labor-saving home appliances on married women’s labor force participation. However, this literature largely overlooks insights from feminist research. Using 1991-2010 microdata for Brazil, I question the way earlier studies have interpreted the relationship between household appliance ownership and female labor force participation. My results for Brazil are similar in magnitude to those using 1960-1970 microdata for the United States. However, I obtain this same result when televisions — not straightforwardly a “labor-saving appliance” — are substituted for clothes washing machines in the model. A result with a stronger causal interpretation, relying on variations in the proportion of women employed in household services, suggests a negative relationship between washing machines and women’s labor force participation. I conclude there is not sufficient evidence to claim home appliances cause increases in married women’s labor force participation.

Keywords: Women’s labor force participation; household technology; domestic labor; Brazil (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B54 D13 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 29 pages
Date: 2025-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-lma
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