National context and spouses' housework in 34 countries

By focusing on how national context and individual factors affect spouses ’ absolute and relative contributions, social scientists are better able to understand couples ’ organising and sharing of housework. Previous studies have suggested a linkage between female empowerment and the division of housework; however, documented effects have proven inconsistent. The authors propose that a less pronounced cross-national pattern for relative efforts reflects the fact that national context affect wives ’ and husbands ’ total involvement in the same direction. A reinterpretation of the ‘discount ’ hypothesis is also suggested, relating interaction effects for relative efforts to non-interaction for spouses ’ total contributions. Moreover, extending the causal model to include economic development as a macro-level explanatory variable permits a nuanced account of how different aspects of national context affect wives ’ and husbands ’ housework decisions. Within this extended framework the initially weak female empowerment—relative division linkage appears stronger. Based on a multilevel analysis of recently released data from 34 countries in the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), this article, on a wider basis than hitherto possible, jointly analyses spouses ’ absolute and relative contributions, and investigates the interplay between macro-level forces and individual-level factors in influencing couples’ domestic labour