The state of domestic affairs: Housework, gender and state-level institutional logics

- Men and women's housework time varies across US states.
- State-to-state differences in market, family and legislative institutional logics are associated with men and women's housework time.
- Husbands spend more time in housework in states with higher female labor force empowerment and more liberal governments.
- Mothers spend more time in housework in states with greater family traditionalism.
- Mothers spend less time in housework in states with higher female labor force empowerment.

Multi-level cross-national research consistently shows individual housework arrangements are structured by broader contexts of equality. Across this body of research, the United States is treated as a single entity. Yet, individual-level housework time may vary by state-to-state differences in institutional market, family and legislative logics. To test these relationships, we pair individual-level data from the American Time Use Survey (2003-2012; aged 18 to 64 n = 106,190) with three state-level indices - female labor force empowerment, family traditionalism and state government liberalism. For market institutional logics, we find wives and husbands spend more but mothers less time in housework in states where women have more labor market power. For family logics, we find mothers spend more and husbands less time in housework in more traditional states. For legislative logics, we find women and husbands spend more time in housework in more liberal states. Our results highlight the importance of state-to-state institutional logics on individuals' housework time.