Making up for mothers' employed working hours? Housework and childcare among Norwegian fathers

It is an important aim in Norwegian work-family policy to enhance fathers' family role, and some argue that we now have a father-friendly welfare state. Norwegian time-use surveys show an increase in fathers' family-work but, we know little about the factors influencing fathers' domestic labour In this article ask whether fathers increase their housework and childcare in response to mothers' employment using the latest Norwegian time-use survey, we find a non-linear relationship between the mother's working hours and the couple's non-overlapping working hours on the one hand, and the mothers working hours and the fathers family-work on the other. The father makes up for the mother's absence only when she works short hours and only for certain chores. Full-time employment for the mother does not increase the father's contribution in any types of family-work. This suggests that dual-earner parents rely mostly on external childcare to substitute for the mother's absence.