Chapter 13 Subjective 4

Assess the following partial Results section:

1.                  Identify

                  -          the purpose or background of the experiment

                  -          the experimental approach

                  -          the results

                  -          the interpretation of the results

2.                  Are all the parts of a paragraph for the Results section provided? Please explain.

To explore the forces behind the strong tendency of husbands to decrease their share of housework, and the low tendency to increase their share of housework in the course of marriage, we looked at the findings from the multivariate event-history models. We first explored the role of economic resources in changing couple’s division of housework in the course of marriage (Table 1). We investigate the impact of the spouse’s relative economic resources on the likelihood of dividing housework either more equally or less equally in the course of marriage. We find that husbands who work a similar number of hours (Husband=Wife), or lower number of hours (Husband<Wife) than their wives, are less likely to decrease their share in household labor, compared to husbands who work longer hours than their wives (Husband>Wife). Equal earning levels between the spouses also seem to reduce the likelihood for husbands to decrease their share of housework in the course of marriage (model 3b). For couples with an ‘atypical’ female provider earnings ratio (Husband<Wife) the effect is not significant, however. It appears that a winning margin in economic resources does more for the husband than for the wife when housework is redistributed.

We also looked at the effects of family formation on the gender division of household tasks to assess how shifts in economic resources play out in this context (Table 2). We found a pronounced and significant effect for both directions of change. During the first year after childbirth, fathers seem to be about twice as likely to decrease their contribution to housework. In the same period fathers’ likelihood to increase their share in housework is reduced by almost 50 percent, compared to childless men. This push towards a more traditional division of housework seems to come to a halt when the youngest child reaches age two. We found no indication, however, that parents readjust back to a more egalitarian division of housework when kids grow older and mothers return to their previous jobs. The time-varying economic indicators (models 2ab and 3ab) do not seem to explain these processes at all. Here, we need to be cautious not to interpret lack of significance in the economic indicators as lack of relevance, especially since the share of parents in the ‘non-traditional’ resource categories is low. The number of mothers out-earning or working longer hours than their husbands is small in this sample and the share of continuously working mothers is low.

(With permission from Daniela Grunow)