This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (1) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Hank, K. Articles by Jürges, H. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Gender and the Division of Household Labor in Older Couples

A European Perspective

Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging, University of Mannheim, Germany

Hendrik Jürges

Mannheim Research Institute for the Economics of Aging, University of Mannheim, Germany

Using microdata from the 2004 Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), this study takes a cross-national perspective to investigate the division of household labor among older couples (aged 50 years or more). Across nine continental European countries, the authors find considerable variation in the overall distribution of housework between partners, with more egalitarian countries in northern Europe and more traditional countries in southern Europe. A multilevel analysis shows that about half of the between-country variance in the division of housework is due to differences in older couples’ characteristics, but that there are no country-specific effects of the main microlevel explanatory variables. Finally, the authors find a significant effect of macrolevel gender inequalities on couples’ division of housework, suggesting that older couples living in more gender-egalitarian countries are more likely to exhibit an equal sharing of household labor.

Key Words: gender • division of household labor • older couples • Europe • SHARE

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Voicu, B. Voicu, and K. Strapcova Housework and Gender Inequality in European Countries Eur. Sociol. Rev., September 21, 2008; (2008) jcn054v1. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]