Whose Attitudes and Money Matter? The Way Gender Talks in His Housework Participation in China

The prior studies naturally assume that wives’ gender attitudes and resources are key elements in predicting their husbands’ housework. I argue, however, that this emphasis on women’s attitudes and income in affecting division of domestic labor leads to an overlook on the possibility that men’s housework is only affected by their own or other men’s attitudes and resources. Drawing on the nationally representative data, this research examines how these two perspectives explain men’s housework in China. Results indicate that men’s attitudes and income are primary factors predicting their own housework time, whereas women’s attitudes and income have much less prominent effects. Results suggest a dominant logic of patriarchal culture in China, that is, it is men’s own attitudes and income, and men’s comparisons with other men that affects their behaviors. It further explains why the gender revolution is stalled in China even though women’s income and educational levels have been widely improved in recent decades.