BACKGROUND: Married individuals, particularly women who generally have less earning power than men, therefore have greater incentives to stay in the union and are more likely to invest their time in unpaid work than married men. The extent to which cohabitation is institutionalized and legal protections exist for individuals that wish to dissolve their relationship, however, is a matter of policy and varies substantially by country. The gender gap in paid and unpaid work between married and cohabiting individuals should be larger in countries where cohabitation is less institutionalized and where those in cohabiting relationships have relatively fewer legal protections should the relationship dissolve, yet few studies have explored this variation. OBJECTIVE: Using time diary data from France, Italy and the United States, we assess the time men and women devote to paid and unpaid work in cohabiting and married couples. These three countries provide a useful diversity in marital regimes for examining these expectations: France where cohabitation is most “marriage like” and where partnerships can be registered and carry legal rights; the United States where cohabitation is common but is short-lived and unstable and where legal protections vary across states; and Italy where cohabitation is not common and where such unions are not legally acknowledged and less socially approved than in either France or the United States. RESULTS: Cohabitating men’s and women’s time allocated to market and nonmarket work is generally more similar than married men and women. Our expectations about country differences are only partially borne out by the findings. Greater gender differences in the time allocated to market and nonmarket work are found in Italy relative to either France or the U.S.

Gender and time allocation of cohabiting and married women and men in France, Italy, and the United States

NAZIO, Tiziana;
2014-01-01

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Married individuals, particularly women who generally have less earning power than men, therefore have greater incentives to stay in the union and are more likely to invest their time in unpaid work than married men. The extent to which cohabitation is institutionalized and legal protections exist for individuals that wish to dissolve their relationship, however, is a matter of policy and varies substantially by country. The gender gap in paid and unpaid work between married and cohabiting individuals should be larger in countries where cohabitation is less institutionalized and where those in cohabiting relationships have relatively fewer legal protections should the relationship dissolve, yet few studies have explored this variation. OBJECTIVE: Using time diary data from France, Italy and the United States, we assess the time men and women devote to paid and unpaid work in cohabiting and married couples. These three countries provide a useful diversity in marital regimes for examining these expectations: France where cohabitation is most “marriage like” and where partnerships can be registered and carry legal rights; the United States where cohabitation is common but is short-lived and unstable and where legal protections vary across states; and Italy where cohabitation is not common and where such unions are not legally acknowledged and less socially approved than in either France or the United States. RESULTS: Cohabitating men’s and women’s time allocated to market and nonmarket work is generally more similar than married men and women. Our expectations about country differences are only partially borne out by the findings. Greater gender differences in the time allocated to market and nonmarket work are found in Italy relative to either France or the U.S.
2014
31
183
216
http://www.demographic-research.org/Volumes/Vol31/8/
cohabitation; marriage; time use; gender; Italy; France; USA
Suzanne Bianchi;Laurent Lesnard;Tiziana Nazio;Sara Raley
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2318/148285
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