Cross-national reports of housework: An investigation of the gender empowerment measure

This paper analyses the relationship between country-level gender empowerment and individual-level divisions of housework. Pairing the 2004 United Nations gender empowerment measure (GEM) with individual-level (n = 18,560) data from the 2004 European Social Survey, the author compares the relationship between a country’s GEM score, both as an index and as disaggregated measures, and respondents’ housework hours and housework proportions. The GEM index has a positive and linear relationship with men’s housework hours and a positive and non-linear relationship with men and women’s housework proportions and with women’s housework hours. For the disaggregated GEM measures, women’s representation in parliament is positively associated with men’s housework hours and proportions and women’s housework hours. Women’s labor market status, including the percent of women in professional positions and female–male wage ratios, is negatively associated with women’s housework hours and proportions. Finally, the cross-level interactions demonstrate theoretically important relationships to the housework literature.