Production of Inequality: Gender Division of Labor Across the Transition to Parenthood

• In Event: 380 - Regular Session. Gendered Dimensions of Family and Work

Abstract

Using longitudinal time diary and survey data from a community sample of dual-earner couples across the transition to parenthood, we examined change in divisions of paid and unpaid work and assessed the accuracy of survey data for time-use measurement. Mothers, according to the time diaries, shouldered the majority of childcare and did not decrease paid work hours. Further, the gender gap was not present prebirth, but emerged postbirth with women doing over two hours of additional work per day compared to an additional 30 minutes for men. Moreover, the birth of a child magnified parents’ overestimations of work in the survey data, though men overestimated by 28 hours while women overestimated by 19. This research has important implications for 1) the state of the gender revolution among highly-educated, dual earner couples well-positioned to obtained balanced workloads and 2) the utility of survey data to measure parents’ division of labor.

Authors

• Jill Evelyn Yavorsky, The Ohio State University

• Claire M. Kamp Dush, The Ohio State University

• Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan, The Ohio State University