“Thank U, Next”? Repartnering and the Household Division of Labor

• In Event: 3523 - Family Section Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 min): Table 6: Household Division of Labor

Abstract

Amidst high rates of cohabitation and union instability, women and men are likely to form and dissolve multiple and sequential marital and non-marital unions with different partners over the life course. However, sociologists know very little about how past relationships affect current ones, particularly whether people change their housework arrangements upon heterosexual repartnering and whether women and men experience similar patterns of change. In this study, I draw on life course and gender theories to tests competing hypotheses about the effect of repartnering on individuals’ level and share of housework. Using 40 years of panel data from the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics (N=1,897) and fixed-effects models, I estimate change in housework behavior upon repartnering. I find that overall, women and men in heterosexual unions perform the same levels and shares of housework in their second union as they did in their first union. These findings suggest that forming a new heterosexual union evokes gender scripts that encourage women and men to adopt the same gendered roles in their new union as they did in their former union. Thus, although the life course is dynamic, gender roles, as they are observed through housework, are stable amid union instability.

Author

• Ariane Ophir, University of Wisconsin-Madison