Labor market and housework: distribution of time in Russian households

Yana Roschina,

(Higher Shcool of Economics, Moscow)

Research problem Development of the market in modern Russia

has caused the change in the employment structure and in the everyday life of the Russians

The difference of the economic activity level between men and women at the age 18-55 is not so great (economic activity level of men – 81%, of women – 75%, Russia, 2008)

Economic activity level of women is lower then of the men in the age group below 35 (the age of giving birth and child caring) and over 55 (when they can retire)

Economic activity of men and women, 2008, Rosstat

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

< 20 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60 > age

%men

women

Professional segregation and wage gap It is well known that «female» professions

and functions are concentrated in the tertiary sector and that women are less paid than men [Roshchin 2003]

Professional segregation and wage gap are essential economic factors of women keeping a dominant role in the housework

The housekeeping practices changed from the Soviet period:

The increased number and quality of household appliances made housework easier and reduced time spent on it

The deficit has disappeared, more and more goods are sold by Internet, that is why the time spent on purchases has diminished

As it is possible now to by all clothes, there is no necessity to sew it at home

Families cultivating fruits and vegetables at their « dacha » (country house) for their own consumption become less prevailing

The structure of personal services has changed

But:

The social roles of men and women in the households remained the same as during the Soviet period

The most frequent model of female behavior is the combination of roles of housewife and a working woman

The question is :

What greatly influences the labor division between family members and between home and office?

Social roles and gender stereotypes

OR Economic factors such as human

capital and labor market characteristics

Theoretical framework Neoclassic economic theory: allocation of time in

the household is determined by effectiveness of household members on the labor market (wage rate) [Becker 1965, Gronau 1986, Cigno 1993]

Sociological approaches explain gender patterns of housework time allocation with traditions, norms, functional roles and prestige of men and women work (Functionalism, Status and is sexual-role theories, Gender display theory, Legitimation theory etc.)

The main goals of the research are : To categorize Russian households

according to the structure of time spent by family members on housework

To find the determinants of the type of labor division between households members

Data base is:

Russian Longuitudinal Monitoring Survey (Monitoring of the economic position and health of Russians) 2006, representing Russian population

About 12500 people at the age over 13, 11680 person at the age over 18 5545 households

The questionnaire «Did you practice the following kinds of

housework during the last 30 days?» (Yes/no)

«How mach time did you spend on it at your usual day?» Weekday / Week-end

Following variables were calculated:Time spent by individual on every type of

housework during a usual week

Time spent per week on all type of housework MEN – 23,1 hours per week WOMEN – 40,2 hours per week

Female housework

Participation rate Hours per week

  men women men women

Shopping (groceries only) 57,7 88,0 3,8 5,2

Cooking 34,1 90,0 5,6 10,1

Dish washing 47,1 94,5 1,9 3,1

Laundry 16,5 87,3 4,6 8,0

Cleaning the house 35,0 89,4 3,7 6,6

Childcare 14,4 26,4 6,6 11,6

Male housework

Participation Hours per week

  men women men women

Small car, house, summer house repairs 41,7 6,8 9,2 11,2

House or summer house construction or general repairing 17,1 2,9 14,0 14,9

Car driving with family to the shopping, summer house etc. 23,1 1,8 7,8 8,0

Housework without gender role difference

Participation Hours per week

  men women men women

Agricultural labor 27,7 22,0 13,3 13,7

Other family member (children excluded) care

5,8 13,4 7,0 8,5

Help in the housework to the relatives living separately

- parents 8,8 6,9 9,1 9,3

- children 2,8 4,1 12,0 15,3

- grand-parents 2,8 1,9 8,3 7,1

- grand-children 1,1 2,3 9,1 19,5

Individual types of participation in housework They were investigated by cluster analysis

(K-means) Variables – time cost per week on different

types of housework

5 groups were found

Housewives (not women only) (27,7%) Masters (not men only) (7,3%) Tutors (5,6 %) Farmers (6,1 %) Minimalists (53,2%)

Minimalists-housewives (specialized on everyday practices)

Minimalists-masters (specialized on periodical work)

1. «The Housewives» (27,7%)

They specialize on everyday charges and spend more time at home, than any other type

Their time costs on shopping, cooking, dish washing, laundry, house cleaning are 39 hours per week

The time spent on housework in total – 46 hours per week

93,5% of cluster are women

2. «The Masters» (7,3%)

They are mainly involved into periodical types of housework (such as repair work, driving etc.)

The time spent on housework in total is about 50 hours per week

75% of this time is spent on house or summer cottage repair, driving and agricultural labor

84,5% are men, at the age 36-55, married (78%)

3. «The tutors» (5,6 %)

They spend more time on childcare in addition to everyday duties

Their time in total spent on housework is 33 hours per week including 21 hours spent on childcare

91,4% of the cluster are women, 75% are married, more than 50% are under 35 years, 61% are employed

4. «The farmers» (6,1 %)

They prefer to allocate their time to agriculture even if they live in town.

Their time spent on housework is 28 hours per week, including 20 hours per week spent on agricultural labor.

The house repairing and driving take 6 hours per week.

50% of cluster are over 55, 37% live in villages.

«The minimalists» (53,2%)

They spend minimum of heir time on housework (14 hours per week)

49% are not married, 60% are men They were divided into two subgroups

One group oriented on everyday housework (shopping, house cleaning etc.) – their time costs equal 22 hours per week

the other oriented on periodic types of work (house repairing, car driving etc.), their time costs equal 10 hours per week

MEN: Clusters by age (%)

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

13-1

5

16-1

9

20-2

4

25-2

9

30-3

4

35-3

9

40-4

4

45-4

9

50-5

4

55-5

9

60-6

4

>=65

farmers

tutors

housew ifes

minimalists

minimalist-housew ifesminimalist-masters

WOMEN: Clusters by age (%)

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

13-1

5

16-1

9

20-2

4

25-2

9

30-3

4

35-3

9

40-4

4

45-4

9

50-5

4

55-5

9

60-6

4

>=65

farmers

tutors

housew ifes

masters

minimalist-housew ifes

minimalist-masters

1265 households have one one adult; including 195 households with one adult and 1-2 children What determine the type of their

housework? To find these factors we tested the

multinomial regression for the whole sample and for men and women separately

Dependent variable – types of housework, found in the model of cluster analysis

The essential factors of housework specialization in the households with only one adult are:

Gender Labor market employment Wage and the other incomes (this fact confirms

the theory) Age is significant in the model for lonely women Children age is significant in the model for

women with 1-2 children

Categorization of households with more than two adults

The goal of this part of research was to go from individual level to the level of the households

Thus we needed to come up with the procedure of typology of households with any structure (not only the labor division between spouses which was investigated by some researches)

Two-step cluster analysis was used, 6 variables were constructed as the percent of adults in every individual type of housework, obtained as said above (every variable changing from 0 to 1)

6 clusters of households were found: Patriarchal (30%) = housewife + mini-master Minimum-egalitarian (18 %) = mini-wousewife + mini-

master OR mini-housewife Agricultural (11,5%) = farmer + housewife Caring (childcare) (12,4%) =

la bonne + la bonne OR le maître OR le maître-mini Traditional-egalitarian(13,1 %) = master + housewife Daily-minimal (11,9 %) = housewife (or mini-housewife)

+ mini-housewife

What determines the type of the division of housework in the household?

We tested the multinomial regression with dependent variable «the type of housework division», basic type - «patriarchal» (which one is the most frequent)

Significant predictors of housework allocation type are: family type (number of member, number of

children) urbanization level, land ownership and car possession, employment and education of family members

characteristics of the head of the family: age, gender, marriage status, frequency of alcohol use and nationality

Conclusions

In general, traditions and myths are stronger determinants than economic factors (wage etc.): women are always more occupied by housework than men despite the difference in their labor market effectiveness

But the economic factors influence the housework allocation as well

The type «patriarchal» (the third of households) There are two adults in most of these types of

household - housewife and minimalist-master The housewives are mostly women, and their

time costs on housework are 43 hours per week The minimalists-master are mostly men, they

spend about 15 hours per week on house cleaning, house and summer cottage repair, car driving and agricultural labor

The type «patriarchal» 39% of households are large families, 36% are

spouses with 1-2 children under 18 55% live in towns (excluding Moscow and St-

Petersburg Income per capita is 5.6 thousand rubles (about

200$), it is lower than in the whole sample Only in 30% of households there is a person

with University diploma 84% of adults are employed 23% of household heads are workers

The type «minimum-egalitarian»(18% of households) There are two adults in these households whose

types of housework are: Minimalist-housewife + minimalist-master (more than

half of the cluster) Two minimalist-housewives (more than 40 % of the

cluster) Time costs on housework of one of them are

about 32 hours per week, of the other – about 15 hours

This type of households present the division of housework not only between man and woman, but between two women too

The type «minimum-egalitarian» is more probable (in comparison with patriarchal) if: Number of household members is larger Percent of employed adults is higher Children number is lower Household head is woman Household head is chef of an enterprise

The type «agricultural» (11,5 % of households) 82% of members of this households who are

most employed in the housework (71 hours per week) and 35,7% of others households members (37 hours per week) belong to the cluster of «farmers» (individual type of housework)

In the majority of households there are two adults, man and woman as well as two women (two men are very rare)

The type «agricultural» is more probable if: Households live in the country or in the

towns other than Moscow and St-Petersburg

Percentage of adults employed is higher Household head is Russian Household head consumes alcohol very

often

The type «caring (childcare)» (12,4% of households) The individual type of 92% households members

whose time spending on housework is the largest (64 hours per week) is «tutor»

Most of them are women 22% of other adults (who spend about 37 hours

on housework) are «tutors» too (most of them are women); 21% of them are «minimalist-masters» and 16% are «masters» (most of them are men)

The type «carying» is more probable if: There are children under 3 years old in the

household Size of household is larger There is a grand-mother in this family Family members are more educated Household head is a man Household head age is lower There is a car in the household

The type «traditional-egalitarian» (13,1 % of households) People mostly occupied by housework (60 hours

per week) are divided into two parts: 55% of them are «masters» (who are mostly men – 75%) and 42% - «housewives» (women only)

The second family member whose time spending is lower (38 hours) can be «master» (50%) or «housewife» (about 35%)

There is precise division of roles in this household (male or female), but both spend a lot of time on housework

The type «traditional-egalitarian» is more probable if: Household lives in a village Their income is very low They have a car, a large house and some

land Household head is young Household head drinks alcohol often

The type «daily-minimum» (11,9% of households) 58% of persons mostly occupied by housework

(39 hours per week) are housewives (women), 39% of them are minimalist-housewives (three quarters – women)

89% of the second adults (time costs are 22 hours of housework) are minimalist-housewives (more than half of them are men)

The structure of housework of these two people is the same (shopping, room cleaning etc., there is no “male” occupations) but there is difference in time costs (the “first” person spend twice more than the “second”)

The type «daily-minimum» is more probable if: Family lives in a city (especially Moscow and St-

Petersburg) There is no children in the household Household head is woman There are many home appliances Human capital of household members is high Household income is high