Satisfaction of Household Labor: Gender, Socioeconomic Resources, Sexual Orientation, and Couple Dynamics during Covid-19

• In Event: Family Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 13: Relationship Dynamics and Quality

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic reshaped domestic labor and altered the boundaries between work and family responsibilities, creating new opportunities for men and women to renegotiate and reshape domestic roles. Throughout this period, women continued to be regarded as the caregivers and were burdened accordingly, even as growing numbers of households experience shifts toward a dual-earning family model and more flexible arrangements. While existing literature on the division of household labor during the Covid-19 pandemic typically focuses on the share of household labor or perceptions of fairness, finding that women disproportionately experience an increase in unpaid labor and are more likely to reduce paid work to meet family demands, it remains unclear how individuals subjectively evaluate the division of labor. Understanding this is critical because satisfaction with domestic arrangements forms emotional well-being and relationship quality within intimate partnerships, extending beyond the objective distribution of tasks. Moreover, as couples vary not only by gender but also by sexual orientation, examining whether these associations differ between same-sex and different-sex relationships provides more insights into household inequality. This study addresses these gaps by exploring gender differences in how socioeconomic status (SES), measured through income, educational attainment, and work hours, along with sexual orientation, is associated with satisfaction with the division of household labor.
Using the 2020–2022 National Couples’ Health and Time Study (NCHAT), a nationally representative dataset, I estimate additive and interactive regression models incorporating gender, SES, and sexual orientation. Preliminary findings indicate that men are more likely to feel satisfied with household labor arrangements than women, illustrating a critical focus on individuals’ subjective evaluations of domestic labor instead of measuring only the time and work distribution.

Author

• Shuo (Lisa) Meng, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill