Time Use in Domestic Settings Throughout the Life Course by Giulia Maria Dotti Sani

Author:Giulia Maria Dotti Sani
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

Keywords

Domestic workHouseworkGender differencesLife courseItalyItalian time use survey

5.1 Introduction

This chapter focuses on the allocation of time to and participation in housework among relatively young Italian women and men who have left the parental home and are either living on their own or in couples. Drawing on theories of relative resources, time availability and gender ideology discussed in Chap. 2 (Blood and Wolfe 1960; Brines 1994; Ferree 1990; Hiller 1984), the chapter illustrates how women and men with different characteristics (e.g. age, level of education, employment status) have different behaviours in terms of time and participation in housework. The chapter also provides empirical evidence on the division of domestic chores between partners by focusing on the relative rather than the absolute time spent on housework (Dotti Sani 2014; Knudsen and Wærness 2008). Importantly, women and men in this stage of the life course are likely less affected by dynamics of time availability, power and resources compared to older individuals and especially parents (Anxo et al. 2011). Thus, we expect childless and young women and men to be spending less time on domestic work, compared to older subjects and, for couples, to be sharing housework rather equally. Moreover, we expect individual characteristics to play a minor role in determining the allocation of time to housework, given a relatively egalitarian starting point. As will be shown, these expectations are largely unfulfilled.

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