What contributes to gender equality at home and in the labour market? This fact sheet looks at the influence of working hours and gender-stereotypical views of partners on the division of tasks in the household and care of any children among heterosexual couples.
What contributes to gender equality at home and in the labour market? This fact sheet looks at the influence of working hours and gender-stereotypical views of partners on the division of tasks in the household and care of any children among heterosexual couples.
More gender equality at home and in the labour market
The government wants to encourage women to work more. But women generally still do more in the household than men. This hinders many women's move to full-time work. An equal division of labour can contribute to more gender equality, at home and in the labour market. Most people want to share childcare equally. Over 40% of parents want to divide both work and care equally between partners. But in practice, this often does not work out. It is therefore important to look at what factors play a role in this.
Key findings
Young adult women generally do more in the household than their partners. This applies both to women not in paid employment or working part-time and to women working full-time.
The number of working hours of the partner does matter here. Women who have a partner who does not work full-time are more likely to have an equal or non-stereotypical division of labour in the home. Here, the number of working hours of the woman seems less decisive for an equal division of both household tasks and childcare than the number of working hours of her partner. This can possibly be explained by the fact that men in the Netherlands are still more likely to work full-time and earn more on average than women, so they have relatively more power tools (such as income) at their disposal in household negotiations.
However, even in couples where both partners work full-time, the woman is more often primarily responsible for the household and childcare than in couples where both partners work part-time. The fact that a woman, regardless of her own working hours, takes the largest share of the division of labour highlights the persistence of gender patterns and expectations in the household.
Equal division of labour in the home
Couples in which both partners work part-time most often divide household and childcare tasks equally. This is possibly explained by the fact that these couples have fewer gender stereotypes. Indeed, there is an indication of this: when both partners have few gender stereotypes, the division of labour in the home tends to be more equal.
