TIME-AVAILABILITY AND RESOURCE-BARGAINING IN HOUSEWORK DIVISION: A STUDY OF SOUTH ASIAN COUPLES IN THE U.S. AND U.K.

This dissertation investigates the division of housework among South Asian immigrant couples residing in the United States and the United Kingdom. Utilizing secondary data from the American Time Use (ATUS) and the U.K. Household Study (UKHLS), the study focuses on married individuals aged 18 to 64 who identify as Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi, or Sri Lankan. The primary objective is to examine how time-availability and relative resources influence housework allocation among women and men within these communities and to assess whether these factors operate differently across the two national contexts. The research tests two main hypotheses: first, that time availability and relative resources are less predictive of housework time for South Asian men compared to women in both countries; and second, that the effects of these predictors differ between the U.S. and the U.K., with stronger impacts expected in the U.K. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models are employed to analyze the data and test these hypotheses. Findings reveal that South Asian women consistently perform a greater share of housework than men in both the U.S. and U.K., even when engaged in paid employment. For women, time availability significantly influences housework hours, supporting the time-availability theory: as paid work hours increase, housework hours decrease. However, men’s housework hours remain largely unaffected by their spouses’ paid work hours, suggesting that traditional gender norms continue to shape men’s limited participation in domestic tasks. The resource-bargaining theory, which posits that greater economic resources would reduce housework time, finds only partial support. While higher education among U.K. women appears to facilitate a reduction in their housework time. Additionally, higher income and educational attainment do not consistently decrease housework for either gender, highlighting how cultural norms may override economic factors in determining the division of housework.

Author

• Khan, Zahra

• Gender
• Housework
• Resource-Bargaining
• South Asian
• Time-availability
• Time-Use

Identifier

hdl:1920/14426

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:MARS:1920/14426