"The calculus for mothers between working and staying at home varies across U.S. states. Lower costs and longer school days tend to help mothers return to work after giving birth. States tend to offer either better workplace protection or affordable child care, but few states support mothers across their employment needs"--
Using 2002 International Social Survey Program (ISSP) data, the relationship of individual level characteristics with the division of labor was examined for three countries with different patterns of female labor force participation and country-specific gender equality. The impact of two theories, distributive justice and relative resources, was assessed for Sweden, the Netherlands, and Hungary. The author finds that the distributive justice theory had a strong relationship in these three countries in relation to husband and wives' housework hours and husbands' participation in core "female" household chores. The Netherlands proves anomalous as wives' gender role ideologies and housewife status had significant associations with fairness. Relative resources had some association in Hungary as wives' who earn more than their husbands report less fairness than spouses with equal earnings. The results demonstrate that country context is an important consideration for studying the fairness.
Theoretical approaches to housework do not reflect contemporary families and gender relations. We evaluate assumptions about gender and families in three dominant explanations and propose theoretical extensions. First, we suggest a work–family fit approach that examines housework and resources at a household level. Second, we propose the diverse capital perspective that extends earnings centered assessments of housework bargaining. Finally, a "doing genders" approach captures how gender shapes housework in nuanced ways. Our study does not focus on the more general issue of power in relationships, nor do we seek to dismantle existing theoretical perspectives or solve all shortcomings of the inherently couple‐centered and cissexist heteronormative approach to families that primarily focuses on the United States. Rather, we provide some insight into how these theories can be expanded given the realities of diverse family arrangements, stalled gender revolutions, and shifts and fluidity in gender and sexual identities.
The risk-fear paradox, whereby people who experience the least criminal victimisation report the greatest fear of crime, has been established in the extant literature. That this paradox is gendered, notably that women report greater fear yet are less likely to experience crime, has also been consistently identified. However, there remains a largely unanswered call to explore further the distinctive experiences of women and men. There are likely to be substantial within-group differences as well as between-group differences in experiences of crime and reported fear of crime. For instance, women may experience fear differently by relationship type. Specifically, women in non-traditional families, notably same-sex couples and single, divorced and widowed women may be more fearful. Therefore, for women, the risk-fear paradox may not function equivalently across relationship types. What is more, the impact of experiencing crime may have broader effects on women's well-being, with those in families with complex needs shouldering a greater burden. We apply 2012 European Social Survey data to investigate reports of experiencing crime, feeling unsafe and anxious and sleeping restlessly for a sample of European women (n = 28,768). Our results demonstrate that single, separated and divorced women are more likely to experience crime than married women. Divorced and widowed women, as well as those who experience crime, are more likely to report feeling unsafe. Single women, compared to married women, who experience crime are more likely to feel anxious and sleep restlessly. Our results indicate that crime has differential effects on women by relationship type particularly regarding well-being. These findings offer important nuance to the experiences of women.
European countries are undergoing significant changes in employment schedules, including increases in weekend work with potential consequences for families. We focus on one arena of family life—the couple's division of housework—to investigate implications of weekend work for this aspect of gender equality. Furthermore, we situate these divisions within the cross-national context of wives' weekend work to determine whether nonstandard employment has more general implications for domestic practices. Using 2004 European Social Survey data for married respondents in 25 nations, we test original hypotheses which address time availability arguments, the qualitative differences in weekend and weekday time, and the gendered nature of domestic roles. We find husbands and wives accommodate to weekend employment, but women benefit less from these domestic adaptations. Regardless of their personal employment arrangements, husbands do relatively more housework and wives less in countries where wives' weekend work is more prevalent.
The COVID-19 pandemic intensified unfavorable international news coverage of the Chinese Government with consequences for the Chinese diaspora broadly. To understand these relationships, we conducted surveys in Australia and the United States from 8 to 21 June 2021. Using a survey experiment, we find a significant negative impact of the Chinese Government's early handling of COVID-19 on public sentiment toward the Chinese Government in Australia but not in the United States. In both countries, expressing unfriendly feelings toward the Chinese Government tends to harm Chinese temporary residents more (compared to permanent residents). The associations between attitudes toward the Chinese Government and diasporic Chinese differ significantly across demographic groups but overall, holding cold attitudes toward the Chinese Government has stronger negative implications for diasporic Chinese in Australia.(J Contemp China / GIGA)
AbstractFollowing the COVID‐19 outbreak, anti‐Asian racism increased around the world, as exhibited through greater instances of abuse and hate crimes. To better understand the scale of anti‐Asian racism and the characteristics of people who may be expressing racial prejudice, we sampled respondents in Australia and the United States over 31 August–9 September 2020 (1375 Australians and 1060 Americans aged 18 or above; source YouGov). To address potential social desirability bias, we use both direct and indirect (list experiment) questions to measure anti‐Asian sentiment and link these variables to key socioeconomic factors. We find that, instead of being universal among general populations, anti‐Asian sentiment is patterned differently across both country contexts and socioeconomic groups. In the United States, the most significant predictor of anti‐Asian bias is political affiliation. By contrast, in Australia, anti‐Asian bias is closely linked to a wide range of socioeconomic factors including political affiliation, age, gender, employment status and income.
This study investigates the relationship between maternal employment and state-to-state differences in childcare cost and mean school day length. Pairing state-level measures with an individual-level sample of prime working-age mothers from the American Time Use Survey (2005–2014; n = 37,993), we assess the multilevel and time-varying effects of childcare costs and school day length on maternal full-time and part-time employment and childcare time. We find mothers' odds of full-time employment are lower and part-time employment higher in states with expensive childcare and shorter school days. Mothers spend more time caring for children in states where childcare is more expensive and as childcare costs increase. Our results suggest that expensive childcare and short school days are important barriers to maternal employment and, for childcare costs, result in greater investments in childcare time. Politicians engaged in national debates about federal childcare policies should look to existing state childcare structures for policy guidance.
The lack of couple-level data hinders direct exploration of how inconsistencies in couples' housework reports structure their relationship quality. We address this limitation by applying Swedish data from the 2009 Young Adult Panel Study ( N = 1057 couples) matched with Swedish register data (2009–2014) to extend equity theory by estimating mismatch in couples' housework reports on relationship satisfaction and stability. We find women who report performing more housework are less likely to be satisfied with their relationships, and are more likely to consider breaking up. These unions are also more likely to dissolve. Using both partners' housework reports, we document discrediting women's housework contribution, or reporting she does less than she reports, is associated with lower relationship satisfaction. Women in these partnerships also consider breaking up, and the unions are more likely to dissolve. Our results identify the gendered impact of housework inequality on relationship stability.