Tight Ships Or Loose Cannons: How Couples' Approaches To Domestic Tasks Shape Gender Differences In Experiences At Work

Authors:

Abstract: Using data from three waves of interviews and surveys, we examine how cohabiting parents experience instances when work and home blend together. We ask how couples’ approaches to domestic tasks influence their blending experiences while working. Participants’ accounts reveal that couples vary in how they approach domestic tasks. We categorize these approaches as ranging from being ambiguous or “loose” to explicit or “tight”. These approaches matter for blending experiences. Under loose approaches, women are more likely to report negative experiences than men. However, this pattern is less marked under tight approaches. Survey data provide correlational evidence consistent with these patterns. We seek to test these relationships experimentally using constructs developed from our qualitative data. This work highlights the unique role of household contexts and identifies couple-level approaches to domestic tasks as a novel source of gender disparities in subjective work experiences.

Track: DEI

Keywords: gender, work-family conflict, remote work, dual-earner couples, division of domestic tasks, mixed methods