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Cited by 122Gender, Labor, and Family DynamicsWork-Family Balance ChallengesFamily Dynamics and Relationships

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What Are Men Doing while Women Perform Extra Unpaid Labor? Leisure and Specialization at the Transitions to Parenthood

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Kamp Dush, Claire M., Yavorsky, Jill E., Schoppe-Sullivan, Sarah J.·2018·Sex Roles
DOI 10.1007/s11199-017-0841-0PMC PMC6044284
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Abstract

Marriage has significantly changed since Becker proposed his specialization model yet some scholars maintain that specialization characterizes modern couples. Specialization occurs when one partner, traditionally the man, concentrates on market work while the other partner, traditionally the woman, focuses on nonmarket work such as housework or childcare. Using innovative time diary data from primarily highly-educated, White, dual-earner U.S. couples, we examine how couples manage their time in market and household work and leisure across a momentous, gendered life course turning point-the transition to parenthood. We find little evidence of specialization, but stronger evidence of nonspecialization where both partners concurrently engaged in market work or leisure. Yet gender still mattered. Men enjoyed more leisure time, particularly on nonworkdays, whereas their partners performed more nonmarket work. Our study is the first known to uncover exactly what men were doing while women performed additional minutes of housework and childcare. On nonworkdays, fathers engaged in leisure 47% and 35% of the time during which mothers performed childcare and routine housework, respectively. Mothers engaged in leisure only about 16% to 19% of the time that fathers performed childcare and routine housework. In sum, although our study challenges economic theories of specialization by showing that nonspecialization is the norm for new parents' time among highly-educated, dual-earner couples, persistent gender inequalities continue to characterize family work and leisure time.

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Metadata

Authors
Kamp Dush, C. M., Yavorsky, J. E., & Schoppe-Sullivan, S. J.
Affiliations
University of North Carolina at Charlotte (US)
ORCID
Yavorsky, Jill E.
Venue
Sex Roles
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2017-10-03
Volume
78
Issue
11-12
Pages
715-730
ISSN
  • 0360-0025 (ISSN-L)
  • 1573-2762
DOI
10.1007/s11199-017-0841-0
PMC
PMC6044284
OpenAlex
W2762965826
Cited by
122
References
3
Citations by year
2026: 10 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 3
FWCI
15.96
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Sex Roles (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (1K01HD056238, R24 HD058484)
  • National Science Foundation (CAREER 0746548)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Work-Family Balance Challenges
  • Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
Keywords
division of household labor, gender specialization, transition to parenthood, child care, housework, dual-earner couples, time use, time diary data

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Kamp Dush, C. M., Yavorsky, J. E., & Schoppe-Sullivan, S. J. (2018). What Are Men Doing while Women Perform Extra Unpaid Labor? Leisure and Specialization at the Transitions to Parenthood. Sex Roles. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-017-0841-0