Time Availability: The Effects of Employment Status and Work Shift Schedules on Husbands’ Housework Sharing

Vincent Louis, Texas A&M University

This paper examines how spousal employment status, and work shift schedules affect the share that husbands contribute to the domestic labor; that is the effect of these different types of employment statuses and work shift schedules on the amount of housework that husbands shared with their wives. Previous studies have either examined households where both spouses were employed, or more traditional households where only husbands were employed. Much neglected in the literature on housework inequality is the examination of households where wives worked outside the homes for pay, while their husbands were unemployed, and households where both spouses were out of work. The time availability thesis suggests that the spouse with the least amount of paid labor force hours will spend the most time on housework. However, some scholars dispute this claim; this study provides a nuanced analysis.