In-Law Helps and Women's Satisfaction with the Division of Household Labor in China

• In Event: 220 - Section on the Sociology of the Family Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 14. Gendered Marriage and Relationship Formation

Abstract

The division of household labor is gendered in many families across the world, in which women are expected to take care of and doing the majority of household labor. However, the fact of unequal divisions of household labor does not lead to people’s dissatisfaction or awareness of unfairness, especially most women perceive this gendered arrangement as satisfactory or fair. This paradoxical phenomenon implies that the inequality in the division of household labor might mean different things to different people. Based on previous research of western families, I introduce a new perspective on understanding women’s satisfaction with the division of household labor based the reality of the Chinese family, the household assistance from parents. I am using a nationally representative data (the second wave of the Survey of Chinese Women’s Status in 2000) to study this topic. The results are consistent with those studies done in western families in terms of the influences of women’s own paid work and housework hours, their husband’s income and contribution to the housework on their satisfaction with the division of household labor. Women with in-law’s household assistance tend to be more satisfied while their own parents’ assistance does not have a significant impact. However, the analysis on the interaction between gender ideology and in-law assistance indicates nontraditional married women might not be as satisfied as their traditional peers when husband’s parents help with housework. Implications of gender relations in Chinese family are discussed.

Author

• Fang Fang, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University