November 10, 2015

More mothers working full-time but traditional gender roles persist, shows US study

The share of two-parent US households where both parents work full-time now stands at 46%, up from 31% in 1970, according to new analysis from Pew Research Center.

In contrast, the share of households where the father works full-time and the mother does not work outside the home has fallen from 46% to 26%.

But even in families where both parents work full-time, women are shouldering more responsibility for some aspects of childcare, with 54% of households surveyed reporting that the mother takes more responsibility for managing children’s activities and 47% taking more responsibility for looking after children when they are ill.

Other aspects of parenting, such as playing with children, are split more equally according to the survey data. But there is also a divide in perceptions of division of labor: 56% of fathers report that household chores are split equally, while only 46% of mothers say that this is the case.

Men are also more likely to be the breadwinner, with 50% of households where both parents work full-time reporting the father earns more, compared to 22% where the mother earns more. In just over a quarter of households (26%) both partners earn about the same.

The study is based on analysis of Current Population Survey data, which polled 1,800 parents with children under 18.

Leslie Stratton has written for IZA World of Labor on the determinants of housework time. She writes that: “Efforts to reduce the gender wage gap and alter gendered norms of behavior should reduce the gender bias in household production time and reduce inefficiency in home production. Policymakers should also note the impact of tax policy on housework time and consider ways to reduce the distortions caused by sales and income taxes.”

The journalist Brigid Schulte has also written an opinion piece for us about her personal experience of the gendered division of labor in the home. She argues that governments should promote shared parental leave in order to encourage equal division of labor in the home, and ultimately equality in the workplace.

Read the Pew Research Center report here.

Related article:
The determinants of housework time by Leslie S. Stratton