The division of housework and re‐partnering in Europe: Is there a West/East divide?

• Published date: 01 October 2022
• Author: Mariona Lozano,Joan Garcia‐Roman
• Date: 01 October 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12715

RESEARCH

The division of housework and re-partnering

in Europe: Is there a West/East divide?

Mariona Lozano|Joan Garcia-Roman

Centre d’Estudis Demogràfics-CERCA, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain

Correspondence

Mariona Lozano, Centre d’Estudis

Demogràfics-CERCA, Universitat Autònoma

de Barcelona, C/ ca n’Altay

o, E2, 08193,

Bellaterra, Spain.

Email: mlozano@ced.uab.es

Funding information

The authors acknowledge funding from the

Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation,

National R&D&I Plan QUALYLIFE

(PID2019-111666RJ-I00); the project “Joint

custody after union breakup: Which contexts

favour this emerging paradigm?”that has

received funding from Spanish Ministry of

Economy and Competitiveness (Plan Estatal

I+D, Ref.: CSO2016-78715-R); Ram

on y

Cajal programme (RYC2018-024808-I) del

Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovaci

on; and

support from CERCA Programme Generalitat

de Catalunya.

Abstract

Objective: This paper explores if re-partnering leads to less

traditional divisions of domestic work by comparing men

and women in different European countries.

Background: Divorce and re-partnering have become more

common, and we question if they are opening the scope

for more gender-balanced arrangements at home and new

theoretical approaches.

Method: Using the two available waves of the Gender and

Generation Survey for Western (France, Germany, and

Austria) and Eastern European countries (Bulgaria,

Lithuania, and the Czech Republic) for dual-earner cou-

ples, we ran a series of logistic regressions to measure the

probability of having traditional divisions of housework.

Results: We found less traditional arrangements among re-

partnered individuals, although we observed different pat-

terns in each country. Respondents in Western Europe

were less likely to have traditional divisions after separa-

tion than those who never experienced a breakup,

suggesting that men’s and women’s successive unions dif-

fer from the previous ones in terms of housework sharing.

However, in Eastern Europe, this association was only sig-

nificant for men and not for women.

Conclusions: We provided empirical support for a less tra-

ditional division of housework among re-partnered indi-

viduals, but the West/East divide was only observed

among females.

Implications: Our results support the three classic theories

that attempted to explain the division of housework

between men and women. Nonetheless, they also suggest

that among re-partnered couples, we can consider the

additional hypothesis of adaptative strategy, especially

among men. This has implications for gender equality and

family theories, as it opens the door to consider new

Received: 1 December 2020Revised: 20 October 2021Accepted: 18 December 2021

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12715

© 2022 National Council on Family Relations.

1762 Family Relations. 2022;71:1762–1784.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare

theoretical perspectives to explain gender dynamics after

union dissolution.

KEYWORDS

Europe, family, gender, household labor, remarriage, re-partnering

INTRODUCTION

One of the most consistent findings in the study of housework is that, despite women’s increased

participation in the labor market, they are still responsible for the bulk of domestic tasks

(Bianchi & Milkie, 2010; Grunow et al., 2012). There are three main theories attempting to

explain this gender imbalance: First, the time availability perspective (Coverman, 1985;

Shelton, 1992) poses that the partner who spends less time doing paid work does more house-

work; second, the bargaining approach (Becker, 1981; Brines, 1994) indicates that the partner

that brings more economic resources can negotiate to perform less housework; third, the doing

gender theory (West & Zimmerman, 1987) points at beliefs of gender roles that influence and

shape housework arrangements.

However, demographic transitions within the family are shifting households’composition.

Families are getting more complex and there is a greater variety of family forms and dynamics.

Divorce rates in Europe have risen considerably in the last decades, and research on the conse-

quences of housework sharing on relationships’quality and divorce have multiplied (Bellani

et al., 2018; Lively et al., 2010; Mencarini & Vignoli, 2018; Ruppanner, et al., 2018). Hence,

scholars are questioning whether past theories of housework and gender can be advanced to

better explain domestic time allocations within new types of families (Beblo & Solaz, 2018;

Geist & Ruppanner, 2018; Solaz, 2015).

To our knowledge, little is known about individuals’division of domestic chores in succes-

sive partnerships and the few studies that have focused on it provided ambiguous results. For

example, Beblo and Solaz (2018) found that in Germany re-partnered women decreased the

time devoted to housework and increased time in childcare, while men’s time remained similar

between first and second unions. On the contrary, Solaz (2015) found that in France women’s

time did not vary between first and successive unions, while re-partnered men increased time in

housework. In this paper, we aim to compare countries in Western and Eastern Europe to

extend the current research on the dynamics of gender and housework after the breakup. These

two regions differ in key demographic and cultural aspects that make them interesting cases to

compare. First, divorce rates have risen in both regions, but patterns are more heterogeneous in

Eastern countries (Coleman, 2013; Härkönen et al., 2020). Second, Western countries tend to

be more gender equal, and Eastern countries show lower scores in terms of attitudes toward

gender equality and household sharing (Aassve et al., 2014), although there are differences

across countries (Knight & Brinton, 2017). However, differences among re-partnered individ-

uals have been less explored, and we do not know yet whether there is a West/East divide in

terms of gender patterns in household sharing among people in second unions.

We depart from two theoretical approaches. First, some scholars pointed out that unequal

sharing of housework may be associated with divorce, depression, and marital dissatisfaction

(Coltrane, 2001; Norman et al., 2018; Ruppanner et al., 2018). If unequal divisions are leading

to divorce, are individuals in subsequent unions more likely to equally share housework with

their new partners? Following Sullivan’s work (1997), we suggest that there is an adaptive strat-

egy among re-partnered individuals. In successive relationships, they may try to avoid behaving

in the same way that they did in the past, and they make new adjustments in the division of

domestic tasks when considering the potential risk of relationship failure. Second, following the

doing gender perspective (West & Zimmerman, 1987,2009), we suggest that prevailing gender

HOUSEWORK AND RE-PARTNERING IN EUROPE1763