Second Demographic Transition: Association Between Women’s and Men’s Gender Attitudes and Housework Share in 24 Countries

Man Yee Kan , University of Oxford
Kamila Kolpashnikova, National Taipei University
Tsui-O Tai, University of Queensland

We examine trends of the second demographic transition in 24 countries as it expresses in the association between gender attitudes and housework participation. Using the International Social Survey Program, 2002 - 2012, we find that the association between gender attitudes and housework hours has become stronger, signifying that in most countries the second demographic transition is in place. We also find that as the lagged adaptation theory predicts, the association between gender attitudes and housework participation has strengthened for both women and men. The gains in gender equality at home have been reversing in social democratic and conservative welfare regimes, but in liberal as well as South European and East Asian countries, gender ideology and the domestic division of labor have both become more egalitarian.

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 Presented in Session 17. Gender, Family, and Work