Effects of Dual-earner Couples’ Different Gender Views on Their Division of Domestic Work and Satisfaction with It in Korea

Abstract

AbstractThis research investigated how gender view is distributed among the dual-earner couples differently in Korea, and observed if it affects their division of domestic work, and the wife’s satisfaction with it. By using the Time-Diary data of 2019 from Statistics Korea, the study looked into the Korean dual-earner couples who are living together, and put them into different groups by their gender views to see if gender ideology is adequate to explain the division of their domestic work time. The results revealed that a husband’s gender view had significant effects on the domestic work time of both husband and wife, but the wife’s gender view did not affect much. When the husbands have egalitarian gender views, they are more likely to spend their time in domestic work, and their wives are less likely to spend their time in domestic work, but the wives’ egalitarian gender view affected neither for the wives nor husbands. The husband’s gender view was also closely associated with the wife’s satisfaction with the division of domestic work. The wife is more likely to be satisfied with the division of domestic work when her husband has an egalitarian gender view. This research argues that the husband’s egalitarian gender view can be an important indicator for the equal division of domestic work and the wife’s satisfaction with it.