Social Inequality, Gender and Housework and Care Work Division II

Wednesday, 9 July 2025: 13:00-14:45
Location: SJES007 (Faculty of Legal, Economic, and Social Sciences (JES))
RC28 Social Stratification (host committee)

Language: English

The last three decades have witnessed changes in gender roles, household and family structure, educational system, family policies and female labor force participation. The increased women's participation in the labor market, changing in gender role attitudes and declines in women's time dedicated to domestic vary across different countries and between race, ethnicity, nationality, educational attainment, socioeconomic status groups, but the gender inequality in the division of domestic and care work persist. The imbalanced division of housework and care work has profound consequences for women's employment, earnings, health, participations in politics and overall well-being. While most research focuses on socioeconomic and educational inequalities, it often overlooks intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, educational attainment, socioeconomic status, and unpaid domestic and care work. This session welcomes papers that provide empirical evidence or theoretical explanation to the variations and persistence of the imbalanced division of housework and care work, its consequences, and the variations observed among different social groups and countries.
Session Organizers:
Felicia PICANCO, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Maira COVRE-SUSSAI, State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Brazil
Discussant:
Ana Julieta CLEAVER, Université Paris – Cité, France
Oral Presentations
The Invisible Burden: Unravelling Mental Load in Heterosexual Couples in Spain.
María CASCALES MIRA, University of Pablo de Olavide, Spain; Juan Ramón JIMÉNEZ-GARCÍA, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain
Juggling Work and Care: Unveiling Maternal Labor Trajectories and Childcare Networks in Chile
Valentina GONZALEZ MADARIAGA, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile
Who Has Time for More (Children)? Outsourcing Household Chores and the Positive SES Gradient in Swedish Fertility
Elien DALMAN, Stockholm University, Sweden; Lisa EKLUND, Lund University, Sweden; Annika ELWERT, Lund University, Sweden; Therese NILSSON, Lund University, Sweden