Examining and Explaining Racial/Ethnic Variation in Men's and Women's Household Labor Participation

Abstract

Using American Time Use Survey (ATUS) data from a national sample of 3,641 married dual-earner men and 4,440 married dual-earner women interviewed in 2003 and 2004, I examine racial/ethnic variation in men's and women's time spent doing housework and its covariates. The ratio of women's to men's total housework time is greatest for Asians and Hispanics and smallest for whites and blacks. Household composition variables are good predictors of white and Asian women's housework time; resources are good predictors for Hispanic and black women; relative resources have some predictive power for white, Hispanic, and Asian women's housework time. For men, own work hours are negatively associated with housework time for white and black dual-earner men; for Hispanic men, having a wife who works more, as compared with a wife who works less, is associated with an increase in housework time. Resources show some predictive power for all dual-earner men across race/ethnicity.