Beyond Responsibility and Power: A Latent Class Analysis of Gender Inequality in Chinese Families

• In Event: Asia and Asian American Section Roundtables Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 5: Asia and Asian America Section Roundtable - Family

Abstract

Research on gender inequality within families has typically examined household labor and bargaining power using separate lenses, assuming that greater decision-making authority is empowering and household labor is a marker of disadvantage. This paper challenges this assumption by treating intra-household gender dynamics as integrative, multidimensional configurations of power and responsibility. Using data from the 2014 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), I employ latent class analysis (LCA) to construct a holistic typology of gender relations among Chinese heterosexual married couples with children based on measures of physical housework, childcare responsibility, and household decision-making roles. I identify three distinct latent classes: a “Spousal Patriarchal Order”, in which husbands are final decision-makers; a “Female Household Manager” group, where wives hold decision-making authority; and an “Intergenerational Patriarchal Hierarchy”, in which older parents make final decisions. What persists across all three classes is women’s disproportionate share of housework and childcare, but the extent varies. I then examine how these configurations are associated with broader institutional and structural factors, including intergenerational coresidence, educational assortative mating, and hukou (household registration) status. By bridging the literature on gender division of household labor and autonomy, this paper provides a more nuanced understanding of how gender inequality is organized within households in a rapidly changing social context.

Author

• Tianao Gui, Johns Hopkins University