Outsourcing and Egalitarianism in Division of Domestic Work: Complementary or Competing Strategies for Addressing Work-Family Conflict?

Barbara Okun
Liat Raz-Yurovich, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Previous studies have suggested two main household strategies to reduce women’s role incompatibility: (1) greater contribution of male partners in the domestic sphere and; (2) outsourcing of domestic labor. Little research has examined joint household decisions regarding these two strategies. We ask whether outsourcing and more equal division of labor are complementary strategies (i.e. couples use domestic services and equally divide the residual unpaid work between the partners) or competing strategies (i.e., despite outsourcing, the female partner does a larger share of domestic labor). We also ask whether the use of different joint strategies varies across couples by partners’ educational levels and by the type of domestic work (childcare vs. housework). We analyze pooled data from Germany, France, Belgium and Austria from Wave I (2005 – 2010) of the Generations and Gender Program. For the analyses of housework, we analyze a sample of married and cohabiting heterosexual couples for whom the main respondent is aged 23-59 (N = 10,034). For the analyses of childcare, we focus on a subsample with at least one child aged 0-12, and we will further break this down by age of youngest child (e.g. for children aged 0-2, N = 1,778). Preliminary findings suggest that overall, outsourcing and more equal division of domestic labor are complementary strategies. However, women who lack tertiary education face the double burden of doing the lion’s share of housework without the benefit of domestic outsourcing. This double burden may impact labor market outcomes.

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 Presented in Session 42. Gender, Households and Housework