ABSTRACT
Previous studies have hypothesized a linkage between female empowerment at the national level and the division of housework in the home. However, documented effects have proved weak and inconsistent. In this chapter the authors propose that this less pronounced cross-national pattern for relative efforts reflects the fact that national context influences wives' and husbands' total involvement in the same direction. Earlier research has also postulated an interaction effect between macro-level gender empowerment and central micro-level explanatory factors on relative housework. We put forward a reinterpretation of this “discount” hypothesis, relating interaction effects for relative efforts to non-interaction for spouses' total contributions. Moreover, we extend the causal model to include economic development as a macro-level explanatory variable in addition to female empowerment. This permits a nuanced account of how different aspects of national context affect wives' and husbands' housework decisions. Within this extended framework the initially weak female empowerment–relative division linkage appears stronger. Based on a multilevel analysis of data from thirty-four countries in the International Social Survey Programme (2002), this chapter, on a wider basis than hitherto possible, jointly analyzes spouses' absolute and relative contributions, and investigates the interplay between macro-level forces and individual-level factors in influencing couples' domestic labor.
