The Unequal Division of Unpaid Work in Italian Couples of Different Generations: Does the Adherence to Traditional Value Still Matter?

Maria Letizia Tanturri , University of Padova
Annalisa Donno, University of Padova

The huge changes that affected women’s lives in the social domain over the last decades have not been accompanied by analogous changes in the households, where women still bring most of the burden of unpaid work. Different explanations for this enduring inequality have been put forward, but it is plausible that in several contexts the persistence of traditional values has continued to reinforce the perception that differentiated gender roles are natural and fair. There are no many studies focusing on the influence of gender values on current division of domestic work in Southern Europe, comparing different generations. This paper tries to fill this gap by empirically testing whether the division of unpaid work significantly differs among Italian couples according to women and men’s adherence to traditional (or less traditional) values, controlling for the structural characteristics of the couples (with particular interest to the mix of age, education level and labour market participation). The analysis is carried out on 9,500 Italian couples, a sample selected from 2014-15 Time Use Survey. The hypothesis that those who adopt more egalitarian values also have more egalitarian behaviour is confirmed, but the differences affecting the asymmetry index are rather small, while those related to structural variables, in particular the employment situation of the partners, are much more important. Unexpectedly, male partner adhesion to more traditionalist value seem to affect more the asymmetry index than women’s one. Young couples are more egalitarian in their behaviour, but not all generational differences are explained by less traditional values.

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 Presented in Session 42. Gender, Households and Housework