Parenthood and Domestic Division of Labour in Spain, 2002-2010

The literature on the division of domestic work has revealed the influence of the life cycle on family organization. Concretely, the arrival of children seems to have a significant impact on the division of domestic tasks. This article looks at the effect of parenthood in the Spanish case, examining whether couples with children have a more traditional division of work than couples without children, and if so, in what way, and whether there have been changes in this trend over time. For this purpose, we follow the the empirical strategy of Dribe and Stanfors (2009) for the Swedish case, analyzing the time devoted to different activities using data from time use surveys from 2002-2003 and 2009-2010. The results show that couples with children have a more traditional division of labor than couples without children, and that it is also affected by the age of the children. In addition, our findings show this trend was less pronounced in 2009-10.