Gender Equality within Dual-Earner and Dual-Career Couples across Different Policy Regimes and Norm Systems in Europe

Susanne Fahlén, Stockholm University

This study focuses the division of housework among various couple earner types in ten European countries, using data from the European Social Survey, and examines if relative resources, time availability and gender ideology moderate this association. The study combines the conventional economic and gender based approaches with an institutional framework on work-family reconciliation policies and gender norms to examine if the division of housework is institutionally embedded. The result shows that dual-career couples, female-career couples and female single-earner couples divide the housework more equal than dual-earner couples. This relates to the fact that women do less housework. The cross-national analysis show apparent differences between dual-earner and dual-career couples, yet the result reveals smaller gender difference in the division of housework in countries with more institutional support for work-family reconciliation and less traditional gender norms, suggesting that couples decisions on how to divide the housework are institutionally embedded.