Chinese Journal of Sociology

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Household Division of Housework for DoubleIncome Family: Economic Dependence, Gender Ideologies, or Emotional Express?

  

  1. Author 1: LIU Aiyu，Department of Sociology，Peking University;Chinese Social and Development Center,Peking University
    Author 2:TONG Xin，Department of Sociology，Peking University；
    Author 2:FU Wei，Department of Sociology，Peking University.
  • Online:2015-03-24 Published:2015-03-24
  • Contact: FU Wei，Department of Sociology，Peking University. E-mail:potatolku@lku.edu.cn

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Abstract:  Based on the analysis of sampling data of Third National Women’s Status Survey in 2010，this paper finds that household division of housework in urban China displays a characteristic of “women do much more than men”.Household division of housework is influenced by the economic dependent relation between the couple，time spent on paid work and gender role attitude，and with quite different mechanisms for male and female.For male，economic independence and success is the best indicator for time spent on housework，with those more dependent economically shouldering much more household work. The influence of gender role attitude on division of housework is significant statistically and independently regardless of other factors.No gender display exists for male.Economic dependency is not the best predictor for female’s housework involvement，and gender role attitude does not work independently as well. The interaction of economic dependency and genderrole attitude on household division displays very complex results for female, and the gender display appeared under such context has quite different patterns and effects.The effects of gender display decrease if women’s genderrole attitude is increasingly toward modern.The gendered division of housework is shaped by the economic status of labor market and social cultural expectation and their interactions as well. Genderrole attitude plays as an intermediate variable between economic dependency and household division.So we give an explanation why household division of housework in China remains women doing more housework than men despite the fact that Chinese female greatly improve their economic situation and pay as much time as male on productive work.

Key words: economic dependency ,  gender display, genderrole attitude