(English) Gender inequality and housework (Italiano) Disuguaglianze di genere e attività domestiche

Adele Menniti and Pietro Demurtas

IRPPS Working Papers from National Research Council, Institute for Research on Population and Social Policies

Abstract: (English) Using data from the Italian Time-Use survey carried out by ISTAT in 2008-2009, the paper analyses the time spent on housework by men and women. The study focuses on a sub-sample of couples, married and in a non-marital unions, with employed women aged 20-49 years. The paper presents the results of a multivariate analysis that aims to evaluate the effects of individual and household characteristics on time spent in domestic chores and on their distribution between men and women. The results of the regression models sustain some of the assumptions underlying the theory of the time availability and relative resources. Education has opposite effects on domestic work, with high educated women doing less and high educated men doing more comparing with those having low education level. More, when women contribute more to the household income compared to their partners, husbands’ time spent on housework increases and that of women decreases, as relative resources perspective predicts. Couples living in southern Italy, as well as those where the woman works part-time, show the wider gender gap in time allocated to domestic chores. (Italiano) Il contributo analizza il tempo dedicato al lavoro domestico di uomini e donne utilizzando l'indagine Istat sull'Uso del Tempo del 2008/2009. L'analisi è condotta su un sotto-campione di 2930 coppie, coniugate e conviventi, con donne occupate di 20-49 anni. Nel rapporto vengono presentati i risultati di un'analisi multivariata allo scopo di valutare gli effetti di alcune caratteristiche individuali e di coppia sul tempo dedicato alle attività domestiche da uomini e donne alla luce di alcuni approcci teorici presenti in letteratura. Dai risultati emerge che nell’allocazione del tempo dedicato alle attività domestiche, l’istruzione ha un effetto opposto negli uomini e nelle donne: queste ultime lo riducono mentre gli uomini lo aumentano rispetto a chi ha basse credenziali educative. Inoltre, laddove le donne contribuiscono in misura maggiore al reddito familiare rispetto ai loro partner, il tempo dedicato al lavoro domestico aumenta per gli uomini e si riduce per le donne, corroborando alcune delle ipotesi formulate a partire dalla teoria delle risorse relative. Al contrario, i maggiori gap di genere si evidenziano nelle coppie meridionali e in quelle in cui la donna lavora part-time.

Keywords: (English) Time-Use; Gender; Housework; Couples; Italy (Italiano) Uso del tempo; Genere; Lavoro domestico; Coppie; Italia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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