Education and the division of household labor in dual-earner families

This article is the first report of a study on policies and the division of paid and unpaidwork in families in Finland. The article examines the division ofhousehold labor and itsdeterminants in Finnish dual-eamer families. The main objective is to examine whethereducation has any impact on the division ofunpaid work and men's participation in itcontrolling fr other variables. It was found, that among women, rising educationallevels, non-traditional attitudes and younger age cohort had a negative impact on timespent on housework, while among men only reduced time in employment and nontraditionalattitudes increased the contribution at home. While both men and womenwith higher education and non-traditional attitudes were more likely to perceive theirrelative division as more equal, an analysis of the absolute number of hours spent onhousework seems to support the notion that more equal distribution of tasks at home ismore or less a result of younger and educated women doing less housework. The datacomes from a survey conducted in 1998, in which 2,500 Finnish men and women werequestioned about time use, employment, attitudes about gender roles, work and family,andreconciliation ofwork and family. The Finnish study is part ofa Europeanresearchproject which studies the division oflabor in families in different cultural, political andsocietal settings