The Gender Division of Family Work Over the Life Course

本研究计划拨款提案旨在开展关于如何定义和使用时间的研究。结果将用于计划一项关于工作分配公平感的后续研究，以及这些公平感如何影响生命历程的转变。它通过关注完成工作和家庭义务所花费的时间的重要性，增加了关于家庭稳定的理论和关于生命过程的人口统计学的概括。对国家和州一级的现有数据源进行分析，以扩展时间使用的定义以及时间使用如何影响重要生命过程事件的范围。将对男性和女性进行焦点小组访谈，以探讨受试者认为他们如何利用时间的意义，特别是在按性别公平分配家庭责任方面。定量分析和焦点小组访谈的结果将构成一项新研究设计的基础，该研究直接关注关于性别角色的信念如何与家庭伴侣之间的冲突相关联，以及信念如何影响到婚姻、同居或离婚的过渡。两名成年人在外工作的家庭的普遍存在，以及经营家庭的习惯需求，对形成家庭的社会资本很重要。虽然家庭内部的劳动分工始于任务，但这项研究通过关注这些任务所花费的时间，有望为家庭如何运作提供新的见解。随着时间的关键变量，研究者将能够转移到考虑关于公平分配任务的信念，以及它们与家庭间冲突和家庭稳定的关系。

This proposal for a Research Planning Grant is intended to carry out research on how time is defined and used. Results will be used to plan a follow-up study about perceptions of fairness in work allocations and how these may affect life course transitions. It adds to theories about family stability and to generalizations about the demography of the life course by its focus on the importance of the time it takes to fulfill work and family obligations. Existing data sources at both the national and state level are analyzed to expand definitions of time use and the scope of how time use may affect important life course events. Focus group interviews with both men and women will be conducted to explore the meanings that subjects attribute to how they use time, particularly with respect to fairness in the allocation of household responsibilities by gender. The results of the quantitative analysis and the focus group interviews will form the basis for the design of a new study, directly concerned with how beliefs about gender roles are associated with conflict between household partners and how beliefs affect transitions to marriage, cohabitation, or divorce. The prevalence of households where two adults work outside the home, along with the customary demands in running a household, are important for the formation of the family's social capital. Although the division of labor within the household begins with tasks, this research promises new insights into how the family functions by focusing on how much time those tasks take. With time the critical variable, the investigator will be able to move to a consideration of beliefs about fairness in the allocation of tasks, and their relation to interfamilial conflict and familial stability.