Gendered Division of Housework in Slovak Couples: Life Course and Other Factors

The paper examines factors that explain the allocation of time and the gendered division of routine, non-routine and care activities in Slovak households. It departs from the extant literature in three notable respects. First, the division of household labor between partners is studied for Slovakia, a former Socialist country with a specific family and societal context, where female labor force participation evolved differently from Western market economies. Second, in conjunction with the established theories of gendering housework (the time availability, relative resources and gender ideology hypotheses), the explanation takes a life course perspective that breaks households down into five life stages by the presence and age of children. Third, the methodology considers simultaneity in the time spent on different tasks and in its division between the genders by adopting a model of seemingly unrelated regression equations. Slovak males are found to spend on average more time in paid employment and devote far fewer hours to unpaid routine housework than females do. Life cycle stages are found to be a reliable predictor especially for hours spent and the gendered division of care work. Life stages are manifested mainly in time use of women, whereas men adjust their time use only when their assistance is needed with children. Time allocation and the gendered division of routine and non-routine chores are primarily explained by income-based and education-based relative resources, whilst patterns of care work are in line with the life course rather than explained by time availability.