ABSTRACT
The ‘male breadwinner’ division of employment and domestic responsibility structures women’s employment, particularly for mothers with young children. In most industrialized countries, women have a lower employment rate than men, and, when employed, generally work shorter hours in the context of doing most of the unpaid care and domestic work in society. In this chapter we have also seen that average gender differences are often less pronounced than job-related differences. For example, both men and women are involved in a diverse range of working time schedules in the labour market, working time autonomy is limited for many workers of both sexes, and rates of work intensity are similar. Both sexes also share a preference to exit or avoid very long or short hours of work, and there are similarities in the type of schedules that they identify as being most compatible with family life and other commitments.
