This research project investigates the determinants and consequences of gendered division of household labour in cross-national comparison. Drawing on the "Family and Changing Gender Roles III" module of the 2002 International Social Survey Program (ISSP) and other recent data, the objectives are (a) to investigate how the characteristics of partners, including relative resources, affect gender inequality in the division of domestic activities in 34 countries that participated in the ISSP module; (b) to construct and evaluate country-level measures of the macro-level climate of gender and test hierarchical models that investigate how the broader ideological, political, and social climate of gender in a country impacts the effects of couples´(relative) resources on their domestic activities, and tensions between work and home; (c) to study in detail the micro-level mechanisms and the macro-level contextual effects in three countries that represent different welfare state regimes: Germany (conservative), USA (liberal), and Finland (social democratic welfare state regime).

Principal Investigators:

Sonja Drobnič (Universität Hamburg, Germany)
Judith Treas (University of California - Irvine, USA)

Funding:

Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

Duration:

2005-2009