The Intergenerational Transmission of Gender Roles: Children's Contribution to Housework in Germany
| Author | Gøsta Esping‐Andersen,Julia Cordero‐Coma |
| Date | 01 August 2018 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12497 |
| Published date | 01 August 2018 |
J C-C Complutense University of Madrid
G E-A Pompeu Fabra University∗
The Intergenerational Transmission of Gender
Roles: Children’s Contribution to Housework
in Germany
Research on children’s participation in house-
work is scarce and mainly descriptive. Drawing
on theories of gender role socialization, the
authors identify how children’s contributions
are inuenced by how their parents allocate
domestic tasks. Using data from the German
Socioeconomic Panel, which include annual
information on time dedicated to housework for
all family members, they analyze a sample of
2,293 sons and daughters born 1976 to 1995
who live with their parents at ages 18 and 19 and
whose parents reported their own time spent
on housework when the children were aged
8 to 11 years. The authors nd that parents’
housework division when children were ages 8
to 11 affects the likelihood of sons (and less so,
daughters) participating in such tasks, even after
controlling for parental education, the mother’s
work attachment, time constraints, and parents’
division of housework in adolescence. Analy-
sis of siblings provides additional support for
our hypothesis.
Department of Applied Sociology, Facultad de Educación,
Complutense University of Madrid, Rector Royo Villanova
s/n, 28040, Madrid, Spain. (jcorderoc@ucm.es).
∗Department of Political and Social Sciences, Pompeu
Fabra University,Ramón Trías Fargas 25-27, 08005,
Barcelona, Spain.
Key Words: childhood, family roles, xed effects models,
gender,housework.
Research on children’s participation in house-
work is scarce, most likely because it has been
considered of minor importance. Nevertheless,
there is some empirical evidence that shows chil-
dren’s input can be signicant (Gager, Cooney,
& Call, 1999; Gager, Sanchez, & Demaris,
2009). Most studies of children’s contribution
are primarily descriptive, seeking to provide a
fuller picture of how children spend their time
(Hofferth & Sandberg, 2001; Kooreman, 2007).
A general nding is that housework inputs vary
according to the child’s sex and age (Brannen,
1995; White & Brinkerhoff, 1981). Girls tend to
spend more time in domestic work than boys,
and gender differences appear more pronounced
among older children (Dotti Sani, 2016; Gager
et al., 2009). Besides, younger children do less
housework than older children (Bonke, 2010;
Evertsson, 2006; Gager et al., 1999).
Analyzing children’s involvement in house-
work can be of great interest on one hand
because identifying the mechanisms that lead
sons and daughters to pitch in may shed some
light on how these tasks and responsibilities are
learned, and on the other because it can capture
some of the underpinnings of gendered division
of domestic chores among adults.
To understand participation in housework in
the parental home it is evident that we need to
examine the inuence of parents. The family
of origin is a key locus for social learning in
general and for dening household roles in
Journal of Marriage and Family 80 (August 2018): 1005–1019 1005
DOI:10.1111/jomf.12497
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