Cross-Spouse Influence of Education on Men’s and Women’s Time Use in Spain

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Abstract

Education is an important predictor of time spent in a variety of activities, but less is known about how the education of one’s spouse influences one’s own time. I explore cross-spouse educational influences on a range of men’s and women’s time use activities in Spain, a country that has undergone dramatic social change in recent decades. Analyses of the 2009 Spanish Time Use Survey data show that men’s time in paid work, unpaid domestic work, free time out of the house, and childcare increases significantly when their spouses have higher education. Women with higher education spend more time in several types of activities, but women’s time is generally not influenced by their spouses’ education. The results suggest that men (but not women) change their daily activities in response to their spouses’ education—perhaps providing evidence of a domain in which women exert power within the household.

Author

• Marco Antonio Faytong Haro, Pennsylvania State University