Gender (in)equality at the kitchen table: A diary study on how parents’ coordination facilitates an equal task division and relationship quality

Abstract

Although women's labour force participation has increased, women still lag behind in financial independence and men in spending time on parenting. Insight in individuals' explicit conversations with their partner about how to coordinate daily household, childcare and paid work may help to overcome these persistent inequalities. Using a daily diary design, the present study examined to what extent daily conversations with the partner about household, childcare and paid work can boost a more equal, fair task division and relationship quality among Dutch mothers and fathers in a heterosexual relationship (N = 1235 daily reported conversations nested in 157 participants; 66.2% female). Mixed model results showed that (1) on days when participants conversed more with their partner about household tasks, they reported a more egalitarian task division and higher satisfaction with and fairness of the task division, and higher relationship quality (2) this higher daily satisfaction with and perceived fairness of the task division (but not egalitarianism) were, in turn, associated with higher relationship quality and (3) conversations had limited spill-over effects to the next day, stressing the importance of daily coordination. Together, these findings imply that daily household coordination helps parents to overcome traditional gender roles and align with their desired work/family division.