제목: Do women’s relative economic resources affect the division of household labor

저자: 이근재

요약

The literature on the effect of economic resources on housework allocation generally uses a woman’s income after marriage as a proxy for her economic resources. However, considering that many women quit a job or reduce working hours after marriage, the post-marriage income is likely to be the result rather than the cause of division of labor between couples. Therefore, using a woman’s post-marriage income could overestimate the effect of her economic resources on her housework burden due to reverse causality. This study uses a woman’s pre-marriage income to accurately evaluate South Korean women’s relative economic potential in comparison to their husbands’. Our results show that a woman’s relative income does not have a significant impact on her time and share of housework probably because many women maintain traditional gender role perceptions regardless of their economic superiority over their husbands. Interestingly, a woman’s post-marriage income shows a much stronger relationship with the housework allocation than her pre-marriage income.