Household Labor, Gender Roles, and Family Satisfaction: A Cross-National Comparison

Data from the 2002 International Social Survey Program: Family and Changing Gender Roles (III) are analyzed for 25,750 married or cohabiting adults from 31 countries in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the United States. We examine the associations between gender role attitudes, household labor, and family satisfaction. In addition, we include a measure of incongruence between ideology and behavior. We estimate individual, couple, and country factors and their association with family satisfaction in regression models, as well as variation within and between countries based on multi-level models. Overall, we find that involvement in housework and childcare is positively associated with family satisfaction. Family satisfaction is higher among those in more traditional relationships (man breadwinner, woman homemaker) relative to other family forms; yet interaction terms indicate that men report higher family satisfaction the more involved they are in housework and childcare, and the more they agree they ought to share housework and childcare. Although those in traditional partnerships report higher family satisfaction, nontraditional partners experience less incongruence between their attitudes regarding the division of labor in the home and actual behavior. Multi-level models indicate that only about 4 percent of the variation in family satisfaction is between countries, and satisfaction is associated with increased country development. Development and family policies that encourage and support father involvement in household responsibilities are likely to increase family satisfaction, even among couples in more traditional family roles; and this relationship appears to be consistent cross-nationally.