Satisfaction with Work-Family Balance and the Division of Household Labor: The Moderating Effect of Cohabitation and Second Unions or Marriages

Mariona Lozano, McGill University
Dana Hamplova, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and Charles University in Prague
Celine Le Bourdais, McGill University

We study individuals’ evaluation of their satisfaction with work-family balance, emphasizing the extent to which it is associated with the division of household labor. This is a new question because the work-family balance has usually been explained in terms of work-related demands, and we argue that the domestic side needs to be considered. We also discuss cohabitation and second unions as moderators of this relationship. Using data from the Canadian 2011 General Social Survey, we ran multinomial regression models and found that the link between satisfaction and housework division was statistically significant only for women. Women having sole responsibility for all household chores were more likely to feel dissatisfied with work-family balance than those who equally shared housework with their partners. The moderating effects of cohabitation and second unions were also proved to be significant only among women.