Division of Household Labor and Relationship Dissolution in Denmark: What Can We Learn from Linked Time Use and Longitudinal Administrative Data?

Gert Thielemans, Universiteit Antwerpen
Peter Fallesen , Rockwool Foundation
Dimitri Mortelmans, Universiteit Antwerpen

In this paper, we study how the gender division in actual time spent on housework is associated with relationship dissolution among cohabiting and married Danish couples. We use Danish couples’ time diaries obtained from the 2001 (N=1163) and 2008/9 (N=2738) waves of the Danish Time Use Survey. The surveys include information on actual time spent on household chores for both spouses for one full weekday and one full weekend day. We link the surveys to longitudinal administrative population data and use Cox proportional hazard models. Our results show a U-shaped relationship between division of household labor and couples dissolution risk, and that the steepness of the U-shape has increased over time. Couples with a highly unequal distribution of household labor have higher dissolution risk, and the risk is higher in couples where men do most of the housework than in couples where women do most of the housework.

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 Presented in Session 230. Gender and Time Use