Gender Norms and Policy Influence: Examining the Impact of Work-Family Policies on the Domestic Labor Gap Among Dual-Earning Parents in the U.S

Background and Purpose: Dual-earning women in the U.S. shoulder a disproportionate domestic labor burden compared to men, negatively impacting women’s mental health, decreasing family and marital satisfaction, increasing divorce, and perpetuating similar disparities in subsequent generations. While cross-national research on work-family policies and domestic labor abounds, in the U.S., there remains a gap in understanding the interplay between macro-level policy effects and couple characteristics, particularly as they operate post-COVID-19. This study aims to close that knowledge gap by examining whether work-family policies narrow the domestic labor gap after controlling for individual-level predictors rooted in Time-Allocation Theory, Bargaining Theory, and Gender Constructionist Theory.

Methods: A secondary data analysis from the Study on U.S. Parents’ Division of Labor During COVID-19 was conducted. The sample included U.S. heterosexual parents with at least one child under five where both partners worked 30+ hours a week of paid work (N=342). Participants completed a survey that captured their housework and childcare hours, as well as their utilization of paid leave, flexible work, remote work, and childcare assistance. Participants also provided responses for their partners to these questions.

Hierarchical multiple regression was used to assess whether childcare assistance, remote work frequency, flexible work, and paid leave predicted domestic labor for males and females, after controlling for individual-level contributors.

Results: Bivariate analysis found significant differences in percent contribution to domestic labor (PCDL) between males and females (t₍₃₃₇₎ = -12.89; p = .000), with females reporting 1.4 times more PCDL (females: M = 67.8; males: M = 50.2).

Multiple regression models explained 26.4% of the variance in PCDL for females (F_(13,163) = 4.50, p = .000) and 25.4% for males (F_(13,134) = 3.51, p = .000). The policies explained 17.9% of the variance in PCDL for females (R²Δ = .179, FΔ = 7.93, p = .000) and 12.3% for males (R²Δ = .123, FΔ = 4.42, p = .001). Childcare assistance (β = -.31, p = .000) and a higher frequency of remote work among men (β = .24, p = .010) significantly narrowed the domestic labor gap, while increased remote work among women widened it (β = .22, p = .005). Flexible work and paid leave showed no significant relationship with PCDL.

Conclusions and Implications: This study found that work-family policies effectively narrowed the domestic labor gap when they shifted the default expectation of domestic labor away from women. Furthermore, childcare assistance emerged as the most impactful policy in reducing this gap, a policy specifically targeted at domestic labor relief. Consequently, it is recommended that work-family policies be strategically categorized based on their primary objectives: facilitating work-life integration, providing relief from paid work, and alleviating domestic labor burdens. Such categorization can guide policymakers in designing targeted policies to address domestic labor distribution challenges.