Racial and Ethnic Heterogeneity in Housework Time

This study aims to explore the racial and ethnic heterogeneity in men’s and women’s housework time across marital statuses. As the perspective of Gender as Structure suggests, gender differences in housework can be attributed to gender disparities in socioeconomic status and gender socialization. These differences can further diverge when men and women enter into partnered households due to the gendered division of labor. However, men and women from different races and ethnicities experience different gender disparities in socioeconomic status and racialized gender socialization in partnered and unpartnered households. This can potentially lead to racial and ethnic heterogeneity in gender differences in housework across marital statuses. Using the 2007-2019 American Time Use Survey (ATUS) and regression models conducted for men and women separately, the results show that gender differences are less pronounced among the Black population, mainly due to women’s reduced time on housework compared to other partnered women. In contrast, gender differences are the most pronounced among partnered Hispanic women. Moreover, racial and ethnic heterogeneity is more diverse among women across different marital statuses than among men. These findings shed light on the significance of the intersectionality of race and ethnicity and marital status in gender differences in housework.