Giulia Fuochi

Desperate Housework Relative Resources, Time Availability, Economic Dependency, and Gender Ideology Across Europe

This article investigates cross-national patterns in the gender division of housework in coresident couples. By using Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) data, we assess four key hypotheses proposed in the literature: namely, the relative resources approach (the partner who earns less does more housework), the time availability perspective (the partner who spends less time doing paid work does more housework), the economic dependency model (the partner who contributes proportionally less to the household income does more housework), and the gender ideology perspective (the beliefs on gender roles influence housework sharing in a couple), thereby verifying the presence of gender display. Our results reaffirm the significance of gender ideology, though with important differences across countries. Time availability and relative resources matter in the most egalitarian countries, whereas economic dependency matters in countries where partners contribute more unevenly to the household income.

What is Your Couple Type? Gender Ideology, Housework Sharing and Babies

BACKGROUND It is increasingly acknowledged that not only gender equality, but also gender ideology plays a role in explaining fertility in advanced societies. In a micro perspective, the potential mismatch between gender equality (i.e. the actual sharing taking place in a couple) and gender ideology (i.e. gender equality in attitudes, as proxy for gender equity), may drive childbearing decisions. OBJECTIVE This paper assesses the impact of consistency between gender equality in attitudes and equality in the division of household labour on the likelihood of having another child, for different parities. METHODS Relying on two-wave panel data of the Bulgarian, French, Czech, Hungarian and Lithuanian Generations and Gender Surveys, we build a couple typology defined over gender attitudes and housework sharing.The typology identifies four types of couples: 1) gender unequal attitudes and gender unequal housework sharing; 2) gender equal attitudes and gender unequal housework sharing; 3) gender unequal attitudes and gender equal housework sharing; 4) gender equal attitudes and gender equal housework sharing. The couple types enter into a logistic regression model on childbirth. RESULTS The impact of the typology varies with parity and gender: taking as reference category the case of gender equal attitudes and gender equal division of housework, the effect of all the other couple types on a new childbirth is strong and negative for the second child and female respondents. CONCLUSIONS The consistency between gender equality in attitudes and the actual equality in housework sharing is only favourable for childbearing as long as there is gender equality in both the dimensions.

Fertility and Life Satisfaction in Rural Ethiopia

Despite recent strong interest in the link between fertility and subjective well-being, the focus has centered on developed countries. For poorer countries, in contrast, the relationship remains rather elusive. Using a well-established panel survey—the Ethiopian Rural Household Survey (ERHS)—we investigate the empirical relationship between fertility and life satisfaction in rural Ethiopia, the largest landlocked country in Africa. Consistent with the fertility theories for developing countries and with the sociodemographic characteristics of rural Ethiopia, we hypothesize that this relationship varies by gender and across life stages, being more positive for men and for parents in old age. Indeed, our results suggest that older men benefit the most in terms of life satisfaction from having a large number of children, while the recent birth of a child is detrimental for the subjective well-being of women at reproductive ages. We address endogeneity issues by using lagged life satisfaction in ordinary least squares regressions, through fixed-effects estimation and the use of instrumental variables.

Differences in the Way to Conceive Happiness Relate to Different Reactions to Negative Events

This paper aimed to assess whether differences in the way to conceive happiness, measured by the Orientations to Happiness measure, were associated with specific reactions to negative events. We hypothesized that among orientations to pleasure (portraying hedonism), to meaning (representing a eudaimonic approach to life), and to engagement (derived from the experience of flow), orientation to meaning would have displayed a stronger protective role against recent negative and potentially stressful events. After providing a validation of the Italian version of the Orientations to Happiness measure (Study 1), we performed regression analyses of the three orientations on positive and negative emotions linked to a self-relevant negative event (Study 2), and moderation analyses assessing the interactive effects of orientations to happiness and stressful events on well-being indicators (Study 3). Our findings supported the hypotheses. In Study 2, meaning was associated with positive emotions characterized by a lower activation (contentment and interest) compared to the positive emotions associated with pleasure (amusement, eagerness, and happiness). In Study 3, only meaning buffered the effect of recent potentially stressful events on satisfaction with life and positive affect. Results suggest that orientation to meaning might help individuals to better react to negative events.