Is Gender Inequity in Time Allocation Associated with Low Fertility? A Cross-National Enquiry

Lyn Craig, University of New South Wales

Using time use data to highlight the impact of children in the domestic sphere, this paper explores fertility in comparative perspective. It investigates how variation in gendered time allocation to market and non-market work relates to national fertility outcomes. Time use data offer a unique window into how people allocate their labour resources to paid work and family care. Comparative research provides a framework for testing the effects of alternative policy settings. The paper uses the Multinational Time Use Study (MTUS) to analyse time use in seven countries representing four contrasting policy regimes. It uses three measures (total paid and unpaid workload, the gender division of domestic labour, and relative time spent in market and non-market work) to explore the time effects, by sex, of having children in each country. It concludes that gendered time allocation only partially corresponds to standard regime classification, but is more implicated in fertility outcomes.