Network Propositions on the Division of Household Labor

Yoosik Youm, University of Illinois at Chicago

The paper has two goals. First, it advances three network propositions on the division of housework. From two existing network approaches (autonomy and cohesion), it draws unified propositions regarding spouses' network based on mathematical proof: (1) Sharing friends increases the probability of doing traditional division of housework, (2) Sharing free time does not have any effect, and (3) Each spouse being embedded in a dense friendship increases the odds for the traditional division of housework. Second, the first two propositions are examined by using the Households In Netherlands 1995 (HIN 1995) that are based on a representative sample of 1,533 couple-matched observations (or 3,066 spouses). As expected, couples whose friends are all mutual friends are about 2.6 times more likely to engage in a traditional division of housework compared to couples who do not share any friends while sharing free time is not significantly associated with the division of housework.