Time allocation on housework and care among urban couples in China

Based on the analysis of data from China Family Panel Survey (CFPS) in 2010,this article investigates the pattern of time allocation between partners of married couples in urban China. We employ the Seemingly Unrelated Regression Equations (SURE model) to examine how relative income of husbands and wives may affect their time spent on housework and caring work,the method of which takes account of the potentially associated between the unobserved gender role expectation and the division of household labor between the couple,which have been largely neglected in previous studies. We separate work days from holidays,and housework from family care in the empirical analysis. Results show that “gender display” pattern in time allocation is less pronounced in housework than in family care. On work days, wives?? earnings contribution is positively associated with husbands?? housework
time,but negatively associated with their own housework time. On holidays, wives?? earnings and husbands?? housework time show a curve-linear relationship,with a first increasing and then declining. As to family care,wives?? earnings contribution is not significantly associated with husbands?? caring time. There is a clear pattern of “gender display” on both work days and holidays for wives:their caring time would first decrease and then increase with their earnings, after their earnings reach 60 percent of their husbands'. To understand women??s living conditions in China,we call for further exploration of potential mechanisms and forces that drive the long-term change and continuity of the traditional gender practices.