Division of Household Labor between Married Female Clerical Workers and Their Husbands

사무직 기혼여성 부부의 가사노동 분담 실태 및 영향요인

Given the dramatic increase in the percentage of married women working in clercial occupations and the inflexibility of work commitments for employees working in this domain, this paper investigates the division of household labor between married female clerical workers and their husbands, and their sources of external help. The total housework time of couples, the percent of total housework done by husbands, and a scale measuring the wife’s perception of the frequency with which her husband does specific household tasks are all used to measure the division of household labor between couples. Data for 143 couples were gathered from using structured questionares and the time dairies that included one weekday and one weekend day. The findings of this study are as follows; 1) The couples receive substantial support in housework from their mothers. 2) Wives spend an average of 23 hours and 26 minutes per week on household labor, whereas husbands spend an average 7 hours and 7 minutes per week. Husbands do an average of 20.9% of all housework done by the couples. Wives typically perceive that their husbands are not frequently participating in a variety of household tasks(mean = 2.88 on a 5-point Likert scale where 1=never and 5=always). 3) Multivariate analysis reveal that working hours is negatively related to while the presence of child under 6 years old is positively related to total housework. Time availability variables(e.g. working hours and the presence of child under 6 years old) and relative resource variables(e.g. the rate of wife’s income on that of husband) are related to the percent of total housework done by husbands. The sex-role attitude variables are related to the wife’s perceptions of the frequency with which her husband does specific household tasks.