Division of Housework in Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan

Abstract

Using national samples, this paper examined factors related to the frequency of housework done by husbands and wives in Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan. The main results were: (1) Japanese husbands did housework far less than South Korean, Taiwanese, and Chinese; (2) In China, both frequency and relative share of husbands’ housework were the highest among the four societies; (3) Husbands’ housework frequency was associated with wives’ working hours, own income (except for Japan), own working hours, and the presence of alternative resource (mother), but not with wives’ income; (4) Wives’ housework frequency was strongly linked to own employment conditions (mostly income), health status and family structure, and only weakly related to their gender role attitudes and husbands’ condition except for China where wives did more as their husbands worked longer; and (5) Husbands’ relative share of housework was strongly related to both wives’ and husband’ working hours.