Can Workplace Flexibility Policies Promote Gender Equality at Home?

• In Event: 50220 - Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 6: Gender Inequality at Work

Abstract

Despite women’s progress in the workforce, they continue to bear the primary responsibility for domestic labor. While existing explanations emphasize workplace constraints, this study highlights the role of normative fractures around domestic labor where gender egalitarianism—men and women should share domestic labor—and gender essentialism—men and women should perform inherently different tasks—coexist. Using original survey experiment that randomly assigns respondents into different workplace flexibility conditions, this study examines whether workplace flexibility promotes normative support for a more egalitarian division of domestic labor and under what conditions they challenge or reinforce gendered norms regarding domestic labor tasks. Rather than treating housework and childcare as abstract concepts, I analyze specific tasks individually, providing a more precise understanding of what is considered “men’s work” and “women’s work.” The findings suggest that workplace flexibility leads to a partial reallocation of female-typed tasks to men, but male-typed tasks remain assigned to men. This pattern suggests that while workplace flexibility policies may shift expectations about task division, they fail to fundamentally challenge the perception of “women’s work” versus “men’s work.” As a result, men and women may still be expected to take on unequal domestic burdens, with greater responsibilities skewed toward women.

Author

• Minjin Chae, Harvard University