Pathways into marriage: Life course patterns and the domestic division of labour

This paper uses three waves of data from the HILDA surveys to examine changes in the domestic division of labour over the lifecourse. Earlier research by Baxter (2005) has suggested that the pathway taken to establish a marital relationship affects the level of gender equality within marriage. Specifically couples that cohabit prior to marriage were found to adopt more equal divisions of labour than those who married without a prior period of cohabitation. This paper extends this research by using longitudinal data that enables examination of the effect of differing pathways into marriage on domestic labour patterns over the lifecourse. Hours per week devoted to household labour are analysed using a linear mixed model that contains a random term to account for correlation among responses for individuals over time. A lagged variable that combines marital status with household composition is included in the model to investigate the affect of a change in status on household labour. The results show that women spend far longer on housework than men at all stages of the lifecourse and experience much greater variation in housework hours as they transition through different marital states. There is also evidence that time spent in a cohabiting relationship prior to marriage leads to fewer hours on housework after marriage, but only for women. The paper concludes that differing pathways into marriage lead to different outcomes for women after marriage