ORIGINAL RESEARCH

published: 03 August 2018

doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01330

Gender Inequality in Household

Chores and Work-Family Conflict
Javier Cerrato 1* and Eva Cifre 2
1
Department of Social Psychology, Faculty of Labour Relations and Social Work, Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU),
Bilbao, Spain, 2 Department of Developmental, Educational and Social Psychology and Methodology, Universitat Jaume I,
Castellón de la Plana, Spain

The fact that the permeability between family and work scopes produces work-family
conflict (WFC) is well established. As such, this research aims to check whether the
unequal involvement in household chores between men and women is associated with
increased WFC in women and men, interpreting the results also from the knowledge
that arise from gender studies. A correlational study was carried out by means
a questionnaire applied to 515 subjects (63% men) of two independent samples
of Spanish men and women without emotional relationship, who lived with their
heterosexual partner. As expected, results firstly show unequal involvement in household
chores by women and men as it is higher in women that in men, and the perception
of partner involvement is lower in women that in men. Secondly, those unequal
involvements relate differently to men and women on different ways of work-family
Edited by:
Renato Pisanti, interaction. They do not increase WFC in women comparing to men, although there
Università degli Studi Niccolò Cusano, are tangentially significant differences in work conflict (WC) and statistically significant in
Italy
family conflict (FC). However, perception of partner involvement on household chores
Reviewed by:
Anna Maria Dåderman, increases WFC both in men and in women but not WC nor FC. Nevertheless, increase
University West, Sweden on marital conflict (MC) by domestic tasks neither affect in a significant way WFC
Chiara Ghislieri,
in women nor in men, but increase WC in both women and men and FC only in
Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy
Kavita Morparia, women. Results also confirm that subject involvement on household chores is not a
Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, significant predictor of WFC in women nor in men, and that MC by domestic tasks
United States
is a statistically significant predictor in women of WFC and FC, but not in men. Thus,
*Correspondence:
Javier Cerrato results show that traditional gender roles still affect the way men and women manage
franciscojavier.cerrato@ehu.es the work and family interaction, although the increased WFC due to involvement in
housework is not exclusive to women, but also occurs in men. Personal and institutional
Specialty section:
This article was submitted to recommendations are made on the basis of these results to cope with these conflicts.
Organizational Psychology,
Keywords: gender inequality, work-family conflict, households, organizations, Gen Xers
a section of the journal
Frontiers in Psychology
Received: 12 April 2018
Accepted: 11 July 2018
INTRODUCTION
Published: 03 August 2018
Occupational health psychology promotes labor risk prevention intervening both on the
Citation:
organization and on the person, but also on work-family interface. It seeks the goodness-of-
Cerrato J and Cifre E (2018) Gender
Inequality in Household Chores
fit among these dimensions in order to reduce psychosocial risks on occupational health and
and Work-Family Conflict. concurrently to improve organizational efficacy. The effect of psychosocial stressors at work does
Front. Psychol. 9:1330. not remain within the working sphere as it extends also to personal life. This permeability between
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01330 family and work scopes has produced work-family conflict (WFC) to be one of the psychosocial

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Cerrato and Cifre Gender, Household Chores, and WFC

risks receiving more attention during the past years (Eby et al., Different meta-analyses (Byron, 2005; Eby et al., 2005) have
2005; Ammons and Kelly, 2015; French et al., 2017; Lapierre demonstrated the key role played by gender, but how it relates to
et al., 2017; Wayne et al., 2017; Carvalho et al., 2018). WFC work-family constructs is still both theoretically and empirically
negatively affects both health and general life such as work debated (Shockley et al., 2017). Research has found differences in
performance and work satisfaction within the organizational work-home conflict repeatedly, ranging from differences in the
context, but it also increases conflict rates and decreases family experience of WFC to the existence of different work and home
satisfaction. From this perspective, and within a context of a backgrounds to women and men. However, most studies in the
more technological and digitalized society, gender equality at field of work-home interface do not consider gender as a variable,
work is a matter of paramount importance, which must start identifying at most correlates and differential associations for
with a gender equality at home. The aim of this study is to check men and women (Martínez and Paterna, 2009). Thus, we posit
whether the unequal involvement in household chores between that work-home interface studies should include gender as key
men and women is associated with increased WFC in women, variable due to the influence of gender ideology and gender-role
and explain it in terms integrating the knowledge of gender orientation might have on the work-home relationship from a
studies. cultural point of view.
From a cultural and discursive perspective (Gerstel and
Work-Home Conflict and Gender Sarkisian, 2006), gender ideology, defined as beliefs and values
Individuals may experience conflict between their work and maintained about what is right for men and women, determines
home roles due to limited time, high levels of stress, and the patterns by which a particular society judges or evaluates the
competing behavioral expectations (Greenhaus and Beutell, proper conduct of a man or a woman.
1985). Although most of the work-home research has focused This gender ideology is also reflected in the social discourse, as
on how work variables affect home from the point of view frequently the couple recreates the dominant social discourse in
of the conflict between the two spheres (Major and Cleveland, which is referred the essential characteristics in which men and
2005), organizational psychology also begins to study how family women differ ignoring the sociopolitical context. This discourse
variables affect job performance and satisfaction. states that the differences between men and women in relation to
In the psychosocial scientific literature, there is a wide home and work are the result of personal choice, that there are
tradition on the work and home interface studies (i.e., Kopelmanś differences in innate abilities of men and women for household
et al., 1983; Edwards and Rothbard, 2000; Pitt-Catsouphes et al., chores and work outside the home, and that these differences
2006; Mills, 2015; Paulin et al., 2017). Two primary perspectives guide the choice for certain jobs and even that preference for
have been offered in this literature based on the incompatibility home toward work is a free choice in the case of women (Martínez
between individuals’ work and home domains (Michel and and Paterna, 2009; Kuo et al., 2018). Linked to this ideology, the
Hargis, 2008). One perspective focuses on the mechanisms that traditional gender role model prescribes that work domain and
generate conflict between both domains. The other perspective instrumentality are more important for men than for women,
focuses on the segmentation mechanisms between the work whereas the home domain and expressiveness is more important
and the family domains. In this study, we adopt the conflict for women. The traditional gender role model has a biosocial and
model in examining the influence of home roles (differential cultural origin, and was described by Parsons and Bales (1955) in
involvement of men and women on household chores), on work their delineation of instrumental (men) and expressive (women)
roles. roles. This model arbitrarily assumes that expressiveness and
Some research has shown that role pressure in work and instrumentality are separate dimensions, and that expressiveness
home domains generates negative consequences on the other is always women gender role whereas instrumentality is that of
one bidirectionally. So the degree of participation in the home men. Work and family interactions are embedded in the broader
role will create difficulties for participation in work, resulting cultural, institutional and economic context in which individuals
in the home-work conflict (HWC); conversely, the degree of reside (Ollier-Malaterre and Foucreault, 2017). Of particular
participation in the work domain can hinder performance on relevance to gender differences in WFC are cultural differences in
the family role, producing an increase of strain-based, time-based gender egalitarianism, or belief or attitudes about de equality of
or behavior-based work-home conflict (WHC) (Huang et al., the sexes within de culture (House et al., 2004; Lucas-Thompson
2004). and Goldberg, 2015).
Gender roles are essential for understanding the work-home As Martínez and Paterna (2009) indicate, gender ideology
interface. They are shared beliefs that apply to individuals on the seems to determine the percentage of tasks considered
basis of their socially identified sex which are the basis of the traditionally feminine by members of the couple, such as
division of labor in most societies (Wood and Eagly, 2010). In washing, ironing, shopping, cooking, or cleaning. It also
Western societies, the home sphere, and the household chores generates a differential meaning about household chores for
as part of this sphere, it is assumed to be in charge of women, men and women. Also, recent studies have shown that there
which could in turn affect more highly the home to work conflict is still a division of house chores by gender, depending on the
of women than of men. However, to our knowledge, this has not gender role nuclei: instrumentality inside and outside home for
been checked empirically. In this study we will focus on the effect men; expressiveness and instrumentality inside home for women
of the relationship between gender and dedication to household (Fernández et al., 2016). All this rationale, leads us to formulate
chores on WFC among women. hypothesis 1:

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Cerrato and Cifre Gender, Household Chores, and WFC

H1: There will be a division of household chores between men and the home every day (shopping, cooking, washing dishes, washing
women based on traditional gender roles. Women will spend more clothes, and cleaning the house) are considered feminine, while
time than men in traditionally female household chores and men in those considered male or neutral tasks (paying bills, taking care
traditionally male ones. of the car or home maintenance) do not involve daily devotion.
Both men and women similarly perceive a lack of parity in Some cultural interpretation argue that women are more involved
performing household chores, but perceive greater equality in the in house chores and do not want to fully share because of the
care of daughters and sons (Yago and Martínez, 2009). This leads belief that this is central to their gender identity and a source
us to propose hypothesis 2: of power in the family, whereas husbands, whose gender identity
has traditionally been marked by paid work, would not object to
H2: Women will perceive their partners much less involved in do less household chores than their wives (Martínez and Paterna,
household chores and only focus on household chores traditionally 2009).
considered masculine. Men will perceive their female partners more Besides, a crossover effect must be included: to the greater
involved in traditionally female household chores, especially in those involvement of women in the family and household chores must
traditionally considered feminine.
be added the greatest involvement of men in the workplace
(Bakker et al., 2008), which supposes an increased family
Implication in Household Chores and burden for women. As husbands are not available for household
Work-Family Conflict (WFC) chores, wives suffer overload by household chores and emotional
Time required for household chores and caring for the family is demands related to children caregiving, which will increase still
one of the most important factors in the conflict coming from the more women stress and family to work interference (Frone,
family sphere, especially in families with children. So, the dual- 2003).
income couples with children tend to have a greater number of In short, the lesser involvement of men in household chores
conflicts between the partners and a higher level of stress than and greater transfer of stress from work to family causes increased
their counterparts without children (Michel and Hargis, 2008). domestic workload on women and marital conflict (MC), thus
From this point of view, the gender roles model assumes that the increasing the tension transfer from family environment to
nature of the role demands differs in men and women, and these worksite in women. All this rationale, leads us to formulate
roles act as moderators of WFC (Barnett et al., 1995). hypothesis 3:
The highest level of family to work interference in women
comes from the different implication of women and men in H3: The greater involvement of women in household chores and the
household chores, including the care of children. This different perception of the lesser involvement of their men partners is linked
to an increased family to work conflict (FWC) in women.
implication has been proven by various studies and research
(Bianchi et al., 2000; Korabik, 2015; Borelli et al., 2017) and
still persists in society as has been found in different surveys Marital Conflict and Household Chores
(Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development This greater involvement of women in household chorus and
[OECD], 2014; Eurobarometer, 2015). In concrete, this model increased family to work conflict may lead to an increase of
keeps very persistent in Spain, where women spend almost double MC. In this line, Pittman et al. (1996) provide evidence for this
the amount of time on unpaid work as men National Institute idea by showing that the contribution of women to household
of Statistics (INE), 2018). This time is spent on activities such chores is higher on the days when their husbands express higher
as caring for children (38 h a week women versus 23 men) or levels of work stress; in these cases, women must subtract
family members (20 h women versus 14 men) or household energy and time from work due to their husbands’ increased
chores (20 h women versus 11 men). So although women have work stress. However, men do not adjust their contribution to
begun to strongly form part of the labor force and to spend household chores when their wives bring their work stress home.
more time with their children taking care of them, they neither Research on family processes shows that stressed couples show a
assume a decrease in their salary as much as women do for work high level of negative interactions and conflicts. Thus, increased
interruptions due to family issues nor stay at home to take care stress associated with WFC and its correlative frustration,
of their children (Gerstel and Sarkisian, 2006). Most men still leads individuals to initiate or exacerbate their sequence of
maintain full involvement in their work because their feminine negative interaction with the partner (Westman and Etzion,
couple assume the responsibility for caring their children. Thus, 2005; Huffman et al., 2017). This negative interaction may be
we can deduce that women will suffer more by the interference understood as product both of social undermining which consist
of the family at work, because their greater involvement in the in behaviors that involve rejection, criticism and negative attitude
family will can subtract them time, strength and dedication to toward the couple (Vinokur and Van Ryn, 1993) and hostile
their work; however, men will suffer more by the interference of marital interactions (Matthews et al., 1996), which aims to express
work in the family. In fact, a high implication in the family sphere hostility toward the partner or MCs.
has been shown linked to a higher family-to-work interference Focusing on the conflict between the partners and their
only in women (Hammer et al., 1997). relationship with household chores, it has shown how increasing
Moreover, men do not feel an obligation when they are distress and frustration generated by the WFC tends to impair
involved in the home as women do, as they perceive it more the interaction with the partner (Westman and Etzion, 2005).
as a hobby or a free choice. Also, those house chores that keep This can result in increased tension between the partners due

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Cerrato and Cifre Gender, Household Chores, and WFC

to the transfer of stress from work to family by men and their in this case it measures the subjects’ perception of their
lesser involvement in household chores, which would generate an partners’ involvement in all the household chores. Subjects
increase in MC and, therefore, an increase of conflict in the family respond to each item using a dichotomous yes/no format
especially in women due to unequal distribution of household about their perception of their partner’s involvement in
chores. This leads us to propose hypothesis 4: different family tasks. The final scale score is the total
number of tasks they perceive that their partners dedicate to
H4: The conflict between the partners due to unequal distribution
of household chores generates an increase of more family to work
family tasks. An example of these items is Does your partner
conflict (FWC) in women than in men because of their greater take the children to school in everyday life?
involvement at home. • Marital conflict about household chores was measured with
the single question How many times do you and your
partner argue about who must do the household chores
MATERIALS AND METHODS and when? Subjects respond to this item on a Likert scale
ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (every day).
Participants and Procedure
A correlational study was carried out by means of a questionnaire We also measured socio-demographic (sex and age) and socio-
applied by professional surveyors during 2014. They selected familiar (family status, number of children) variables for the
a segmented sample of men and women working in public sample description.
and private organizations from different productive sectors
(teaching, services, and manufacturing sectors). The final sample Data Analyses
consisted of 515 subjects, mostly (63%) were men, with an First, we performed skewness and kurtosis analyses to
average age of 40 years old; all of them were married or living check normality among variables. Second, we calculated
with a heterosexual partner, and they had children. Samples of internal consistencies (Cronbach’s α), descriptive analyses
men and women were independent from each other, without and correlations between conflict scales and subject/partner
emotional/marital relationship between them. Regarding the perceived involvement on household chores scales. Third, we
organizational setting, 21% were working in public organizations computed Analyses of Variance (ANOVAs) in order to test
and 79% in private ones. whether there was any statistically significant difference between-
group regarding gender for subject’s involvement in household
Measures chores scale, and subject’s perception of partner’s involvement in
• Work-Family Conflict (WFC), Family Conflict (FC), and household scale, and Kruskal–Wallis non-parametrical tests for
Work Conflict (WC) based on time and strain were item to item analysis due to its dichotomous level of response
measured through the Spanish version (Martínez-Pérez and (Hypothesis 1 and 2). After that, we computed new ANOVAs and
Osca, 2001) of the Kopelmanś et al. (1983) scale. This scale Regression Analyses to check gender, household chores, partner’s
applies the role conflict concept of Kahn et al. (1964) to implication and conflict on WFC, WC, and FC (Hypothesis 3
study work and family scopes first separately and then and 4). All data analyses were carried out using SPSS 21.0.
together, based on the idea that WC and FC might act as
antecedents of WFC. Each of these subscales consists of
eight items on a Likert scale ranging from 1 (total disagree) RESULTS
to 5 (total agree). An example of a WFC subscale item is
My work timetable is often incompatible with my family life; Table 1 shows skewness and kurtosis statistics. As expected, all
an example of an item from the FC subscale is My family scales show values equal or below 0.5 and −0.5 in both or at least
dislikes doing some activities I would like to do; and an at one of them. So we assume a normal distribution of the scores
example of an item from the WF subscale is At work I can’t of these scales. However, item by item of subject’s and partner’s
be myself, or be the way I really am. involvement in household chores scales do not follow that normal
• Subject involvement with household chores scale. This is distribution, due to its dichotomical nature.
a 10-item self-constructed scale that measures subjects’ Table 2 shows the descriptive analyses and Cronbach’s alpha of
self-perception about different tasks related to household the variables for both samples. The alpha values meet the criterion
chores, family management, and child care and education. of 0.70 (Nunnally and Bernstein, 1994), except in the case of the
Subjects respond to each item using a dichotomous yes/no perception of partner’s involvement in household chores, which
format. The final scale score is the total number of family was above 0.60. As expected, the pattern of correlations shows
tasks they do. Examples of these items are Do you take the that WFC, work conflict and FC are positively and significantly
children to school every day? and Do you clean your house related in both samples. However, WFC is more related to conflict
in your everyday life? This scale only includes the most at work in women and to conflict in the family in men.
common household chores of a standard Spanish couple Marital conflict is only highly and positively related to WFC,
with children of school age, not including others that may work conflict and FC in women, but not in men. This could
be less frequent in this culture (i.e., cutting the grass). indicate that women assimilate the conflict with the partner into
• Partner involvement in household chores perception scale. conflicts in the family, i.e., women integrate the couple into the
This self-constructed scale is similar to the one above, but family concept, while men consider them to be different.

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Cerrato and Cifre Gender, Household Chores, and WFC

TABLE 1 | Skewness and Kurtosis analysis of variables distribution.

Skewness Kurtosis

Statistics SE Statistics SE

Work-family conflict −0.02 0.11 −0.27 0.22

Work conflict −0.20 0.11 −0.50 0.22
Family conflict 0.56 0.11 −0.16 0.22
Marital conflict 0.46 0.11 −0.80 0.22
Involvement on household chores (total mean scale score)
Subject involvement on household chores 0.79 0.15 0.01 0.30
Perception of partner involvement on household chores 0.76 0.15 0.31 0.30
Subject involvement on household chores (item to item)
Home shopping 0.92 0.11 −1.16 0.21
Cleaning home 0.38 0.11 −1.87 0.21
Domestic repairing 0.84 0.11 −1.30 0.21
Family management 0.69 0.11 −1.53 0.21
Free time family management 1.62 0.11 0.63 0.21
Take children from home to school 1.14 0.11 −0.71 0.21
Take children from school to home 1.19 0.11 −0.60 0.21
Children caregiving 0.73 0.11 −1.47 0.21
Helping children with homework 1.20 0.11 −0.57 0.21
Playing with children 3.60 0.11 10.85 0.21
Perception of partner involvement on household chores (item to item)
Home shopping 2.1 0.11 2.37 0.21
Cleaning home 1.4 0.11 0.02 0.21
Domestic repairing 0.33 0.11 −1.90 0.21
Family management 1.22 0.11 −0.51 0.21
Free time family management 2.66 0.11 5.11 0.21
Take children from home to school 1.57 0.11 0.47 0.21
Take children from school to home 1.49 0.11 0.24 0.21
Child caregiving 1.97 0.11 1.92 0.21
Helping children with homework 2.13 0.11 2.58 0.21
Playing with children 4.43 0.11 17.70 0.21

TABLE 2 | Cronbach’s alpha, means (M), standard deviation (SD), and intercorrelations by gender (N = 515).

Women Men

α M SD 1 2 3 4 5 M SD 1 2 3 4 5

(1) Work-family conflict 0.78 2.1 0.70 2.0 0.70

(2) Work conflict 0.78 2.7 0.75 0.34∗∗ 2.9 0.87 0.28∗∗
(3) Family conflict 0.76 2.4 0.81 0.26∗∗ 0.30∗∗ 2.3 0.87 0.33∗∗ 0.40∗∗
(4) Marital conflict – 2.4 1.3 0.31∗∗ 0.21∗∗ 0.42∗∗ 2.2 1.0 −0.05 0.10 0.03
(5) Subject involvement on 0.72 4.0 0.15 −0.17∗ −0.16 0.09 0.12 1.7 0.12 −0.18∗∗ −0.23∗∗ 0.18 0.08
household chores
(6) Perception of partner 0.62 1.8 0.98 0.14 0.14 0.04 −0.18 −0.49∗∗ 2.8 1.5 0.31∗∗ 0.02 0.08 −0.10 −0.13
involvement on household
chores
∗∗ p < 0.01, ∗ p < 0.05.

Subject’s involvement in household chores correlates Finally, the correlation between the subject’s and the
significant and negatively with WFC in both men and women, perception of the partner’s involvement in household chores
but only with work conflict in men. Then, for both men and is only highly, significantly and negatively related in women.
women, the higher their involvement is in household chores, the However, the perception of the partner’s involvement in
lower their WFC; moreover, the higher the work conflict is, the household chores is only highly, significantly and positively
lower the men’s involvement in household chores. related to WFC in men. Thus, women decrease their involvement

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Cerrato and Cifre Gender, Household Chores, and WFC

in household chores when their male partners increase their of the partner is high or low, being always higher among women
involvement; on the other hand, in the case of men, the greater than among men regardless of the involvement of the partner
the involvement of the partner (women) in the household chores, with household chores is high or low, which completely rejects
the higher the WFC is. hypothesis 3.
ANOVA results confirm these differences and inequality It is noteworthy that the effect of the perception of
about men’s and women’s involvement in household chores. involvement of the partner in household chores by gender does
Women’s involvement in household chores is more than twice not affect WC or FC in a gender-specific way, but it affects the
that of men (4.0 and 1.7, respectively; F = 82.60; p ≤ 001). WFC globally statistically significantly, although these differences
Consistently, women perceive lower involvement of their partner were not gender effects manifest. This indicates that the WFC is
(men) in household chores than men do (1.8 and 2.8, respectively; affected by the involvement of the partner in household chores,
F = 22.70; p ≤ 001). but not for the involvement of the subject in them, which
Kruskal–Wallis tests also confirm that women are significantly segmentally would affect the FC and WC.
more involved than men in seven of eleven household chores (see Regarding hypothesis 4, the increase of conflict by domestic
Table 3). These seven tasks are traditionally considered feminine: tasks among the partners does not affect the WFC in a statistically
home shopping, house cleaning, free-time family management, significant way in women nor in men, but it does on WC and FC:
taking children from home to school and from school to home, when MC is high WC increase both in women and men, but FC
children’s care, helping children with homework, and playing increase only in women.
with them. Men only score higher than women on one task As a confirmation of this results, regarding the relationship
traditionally considered masculine: house repairs. There are between the subject’s and partner’s involvement in household
no differences in family management. These results confirm chores and the different conflicts, regression analyses (see
Hypothesis 1. Table 5) show, first, that subject involvement on household
Symmetrically, Kruskal–Wallis tests also show that these chores does not predict WFC in women nor men, but only
results are confirmed by the perception that men and women WC in men in a negative way. Moreover, the perception of the
have of their partner’s involvement in household chores: men partner’s involvement in household chores and MC is a predictor
consider that their partners (women) are mainly involved in of women’s WC and men’s WFC. Again these results do not
traditionally feminine household chores: home shopping, house confirm hypothesis 3.
cleaning, free-time family management, taking children from Nevertheless, regarding hypothesis 4, as a difference of the
home to school and school to home, taking care of the children, ANOVA results, the increase of conflict by domestic tasks among
and helping children with homework, whereas women consider the partners predict the WFC, WC, and FC in a statistically
that their partners (men) are involved in typically masculine significant way in women but not in men. So results show that
household chores: house repairs and family management. There MC in women predicts WFC. This result fully support hypothesis
are no differences in the perception of playing with the children. 4. In addition to this, the MC is the only variable of those studied
On the whole, these results confirm Hypothesis 2. that affects the FC in the case of women, whereas involvement in
To test the hypothesis 3 (the effect of the greater involvement housework does in the case of men, supporting also hypothesis 4.
of women in household chores and perception of lesser In the case of men, the perception of the partner’s (women)
involvement of male partners in the increase in the WFC among involvement in household chores is a predictor of WFC. Results
women compared to men), and hypothesis 4 (the effect of MC also show that men’s involvement in household chores is
in the increased level of WFC in women relative to men), we a negative statistically significant predictor FC as their beta
performed three separate ANOVAs (Table 4), complemented by coefficient is negative. That is, it seems that when the involvement
multiple regression analysis (Table 5). of men in housework increases, the conflict in the family
ANOVAs results confirm partially hypothesis 3 since greater decreases; but when the perception of involvement of their female
involvement of women in household chores do not generate a partners is high, it increases in them the WFC. However, MC
statistically significant increase in WFC comparing to men. There does not predict this FC in men, so the FC does not increase
are gender differences in the extent to which this differential by the conflict with the partner for housework but by their low
involvement in domestic tasks affects FC and (in a tangentially involvement in them.
significant way) WC that point to a gender effect. On one hand,
in the case of women, when their involvement in household
chores is high, their FC and WC levels are similar; however, DISCUSSION
when their involvement is low, FC decreases and WC increases.
On the other hand, in the case of men, the WC is always Home-work interaction has been the focus of a wide range
greater than the FC regardless of their degree of involvement in of scientific literature during the past decades. It is generally
household chores. That is, in the case of women when there is a accepted that both the family and the work scope affect each
lower involvement in household chores the FC is also lower, but other in a different way. However, it was not studied in which
increases the WC. degree the own and the partner’s involvement in family issues
There are no gender differences regarding the WFC according affect different kind of work-home conflict from a gender point
to the perception of their partners: it increases significantly in of view. Thus, the aim of this study was to check whether
both men and women when the involvement in household chores the unequal involvement in household chores between men

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Cerrato and Cifre Gender, Household Chores, and WFC

TABLE 3 | Kruskal–Wallis test of subject involvement on household chores and perception of partner involvement on household chores by gender (item to item)
(N = 515).

Women Men

M SD M SD Chi-square GL

Subject involvement on household chores (item to item)

Home shopping 0.40 0.49 0.13 0.33 39.078∗∗∗ 1
Cleaning home 0.61 0.49 0.05 0.22 153.846∗∗∗ 1
Domestic repairing 0.10 0.30 0.67 0.47 180.924∗∗∗ 1
Family management 0.31 0.47 0.38 0.49 2.455 1
Free time family management 0.22 0.41 0.13 0.33 6.725∗∗ 1
Take children from home to school 0.32 0.47 0.13 0.34 22.959∗∗∗ 1
Take children from school to home 0.34 0.47 0.08 0.28 41.483∗∗∗ 1
Children caregiving 0.50 0.50 0.04 0.20 109.332∗∗∗ 1
Helping children with homework 0.35 0.48 0.07 0.25 49.258∗∗∗ 1
Playing with children 0.10 0.28 0.03 0.16 6.923∗∗ 1
Perception of partner involvement on household chores (item to item)
Home shopping 0.08 0.28 0.24 0.43 24.355∗∗∗ 1
Cleaning home 0.05 0.22 0.50 0.50 141.873∗∗∗ 1
Domestic repairing 0.64 0.48 0.03 0.16 187.264∗∗∗ 1
Family management 0.30 0.46 0.14 0.35 15.260∗∗∗ 1
Free time family management 0.07 0.26 0.15 0.36 7.49∗∗ 1
Take children from home to school 0.12 0.33 0.30 0.46 24.446∗∗∗ 1
Take children from school to home 0.10 0.31 0.37 0.48 51.522∗∗∗ 1
Child caregiving 0.05 0.22 0.32 0.47 66.873∗∗∗ 1
Helping children with homework 0.08 0.28 0.23 0.42 21.669∗∗∗ 1
Playing with children 0.04 0.20 0.04 0.20 0.000 1

The highest values, when significant, appear in bold. ∗∗∗ p ≤ 001, ∗∗ p ≤ 01.

and women is associated with increased WFC in women, supports hypothesis 3. That is, the high involvement in household
and explain it in terms integrating the knowledge of gender chores has negative consequences in the family sphere for
studies. women and in the workplace for men, possibly because of
First, results confirm inequality because it indicates that the the greater respective importance that women give to family
involvement of women in household chores is, on average, more and men to work, as it poses the traditional gender role
than double the involvement of their male partners. In addition, model.
men are more involved in traditionally masculine household In addition to this, results show that when the involvement of
chores (i.e., home repairs and family management), and women women in household chores is high, their levels of WC and FC are
are more involved in traditionally feminine chores (i.e., childcare similar, i.e., it equally affects both areas. When this involvement
or shopping). Symmetrically, the subject’s perception of the is low, FC is lower than the WC. However, among men, WC
partner implication confirms this difference: women perception is always greater than the WC regardless of their involvement
of their men partner involvement in household chores much in household chores. Furthermore, when the conflict with the
less than men perception of their woman partner involvement. partner for household chores is high, women report a higher FC
Therefore, hypotheses 1 and 2 of our study are confirmed. but not a higher WC, whereas in man this conflict does not affect
Secondly, we checked if those unequal involvements relate neither the FC nor the WC.
differently to men and women on different ways of WF However, in the case of women, MC affects conflict related
interaction. We found that the greater involvement of women in WC and FC and WFC, so hypothesis 4 is fully corroborated.
household chores does not affect the level of WFC differentially This is very interesting because although hypothesis 3 is not met,
in men and women, so hypothesis 3 is not met. This gender however, the conflict with the partner due to this inequality in the
inequality in the distribution of household chores and child care distribution of housework seems to generate this WFC. That is, it
does not imply a higher level of WFC in women compared would not be the greatest involvement in household chores itself
to men. Rather the opposite happens: when more involved are that might cause and increase WFC in women, but the conflict
both men and women in household chores, lower is the WFC. with their partner which might produce it.
Although the hypothesis 3 is not corroborated, it should be These results may be related to the absence of perception
noted that when the involvement of women in household chores of injustice in the relationships regarding to inequality in the
is high, their level of FC increases; when men’s involvement distribution of domestic and family responsibilities between men
increases, their level of WC increases, which in some way and women, so that in many cases women neither do perceive

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Cerrato and Cifre Gender, Household Chores, and WFC

TABLE 4 | Analysis of variance of work-family conflict, work conflict and family conflict by subject involvement on household chores and subject perception of partner
involvement on household chores and marital conflict by gender (N = 515).

Gender Work conflict Family conflict Work-family conflict

M SD M SD M SD

Subject involvement on household chores

High Women 2.7 0.98 2.8 1.0 2.2 0.85
Men 3.9 0.27 3.1 0.85 2.0 0.87
Low Women 2.9 0.69 2.6 0.80 2.4 0.72
Men 3.2 0.90 2.1 0.92 2.3 0.71
F 2.516+ 3.552∗ 1.204
Perception of partner involvement on household chores
High Women 2.9 0.35 2.9 1.1 2.7 0.53
Men 3.8 0.53 2.6 0.92 2.4 0.66
Low Women 2.6 0.84 2.5 0.90 2.0 0.77
Men 3.3 0.93 2.6 0.95 1.8 0.68
F 2.330 0.690 8.458∗∗∗
Marital conflict
High Women 2.9 0.77 3.0 0.80 2.3 0.74
Men 3.8 0.85 2.6 0.71 2.1 0.54
Low Women 2.7 0.76 2.4 0.70 2.3 0.67
Men 3.4 0.89 2.6 1.0 2.2 0.78
F 3.273∗∗ 7.442∗∗ 0.533
∗∗∗ p ≤ 0.001, ∗∗ p ≤ 0.01, ∗ p ≤ 0.05, + p ≤ 0.10.

TABLE 5 | Regression analyses predicting work conflict, family conflict and work-family conflict (dependent variables) in women and men by involvement on household
chores, subject perception of partner involvement on household chores and level of marital conflict (independent variables).

Work Conflict Family Conflict Work-Family Conflict

Women Men Women Men Women Men

β β β β β β

Subject involvement on household chores 0.09 0.15 −0.09 −0.20∗∗ −0.10 −0.11
Perception of partner involvement on household chores 0.12∗ 0.09 0.08 0.01 0.08 0.23∗
Marital conflict 0.42∗∗ 0.02 0.22∗∗ 0.11 0.26∗ −0.03
R2 = 0.18∗∗ R2 = 01 R2 = 0.06∗∗ R2 = 0.02 R2 = 0.07∗∗ R2 = 0.06∗
∗∗ p < 0.01, ∗p < 0.05. Standardized beta coefficients (N = 515).

injustice in their relationships nor are dissatisfied. Following the these results were mediated by gender ideology so this inequal
review of Yago and Martínez (2009), it has repeatedly shown that distribution do not generate distress in the more traditional
the perception of an unequal distribution of housework between women whereas it does in women with an equal gender ideology.
men and women does not necessarily lead to a perception of In this line a study of Ogolsky et al. (2014) shows that the
unfairness. This perception of justice on the division of domestic discrepancies at a cognitive level between men and women with
work and the ideology of traditional gender that supports it regard to equality in household chores affects the quality of the
explain why gender inequalities remain in the family sphere relationship in the sphere of the couple in greater way to women
mediating the relationship between the perception of injustice than in men. However, when this inequality is manifested in a
and perceived quality the relationship. In fact, when women are behavioral level, it does not seem to affect the quality of the
more socially and emotionally independent from their partners, relationship in women. That is, the real inequality does not affect
they are more likely to consider unfair the inequality in the the quality of the relationship in women, but it does at the
distribution of household chores. cognitive level.
The perception of injustice is a mediating factor between The involvement of the couple in household chores is related
an unequal distribution of domestic work and the perceived to an increased WFC, although it does not affect the WC or the
quality of the relationship; the relationship may be perceived as FC separately by gender, but affects the WFC globally: it increases
satisfactory although the sharing of responsibilities is not equal, similarly in men and women when the couple’s involvement is
if it is not perceived unfair (Yago and Martínez, 2009). However, high. This indicates that the WFC is affected by the involvement

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Cerrato and Cifre Gender, Household Chores, and WFC

of the partner in household chores, but not for the involvement models of facilitation and synergy, how transitions are made from
of the subject in them, which would affect to a segmented FC one scope to the other, and how they integrate with each other.
and WC. These results do not prove the hypothesis 3, but can They do not consider them as separate domains but as something
indicate that the model of traditional gender roles does not serve unitary and unbreakable within the life of people. In the same
to satisfactorily explain the influence of the division of household way, an approach that takes into account the gender ideology
tasks and the effect of gender inequality in the WFC, as both is progressively being imposed, since it is inseparable from the
in the case of men and women more involved in household relationship between work and the family from a cultural point
chores generate that their female and male partners feel an of view.
increased WFC.
Men’s and women’s perceptions of their partners’ involvement Study Limitations
in household chores contribute significantly to the perception of This study focuses on the effect of different kinds of conflict
WFC; their own involvement also contributes significantly to FC, related to the home and work settings. However, due the lack of
but negatively, which means that the more involved their partner clear differences in results regarding WFC in men and women
is in the household chores, the greater their WFC. when partners’ implication in household chorus is high, it would
Although our study seems to show that gender is an important be necessary to include facilitation and synergy models that
variable in the involvement in household chores, and that gender would make it easier to understand the work-family relationship
inequality and the model of traditional gender roles is still valid in in all its facets, including the role played by gender and gender
our western society, it also seems to suggest that increased WFC inequality. Research on the positive reciprocal effects of work and
due to a high involvement in household chores is not exclusive to family is fundamental to understanding the complexity of the
men but also occurs in women. This could be an indicator of a work-family interaction.
change in the model of traditional gender roles that began in the In addition, this study has other methodological limitations.
80s, where new generations equate the importance of work and First, we studied the effect of gender and involvement
family spheres in the cases of both men and women. in household chores on the work-family relationship using
In fact, results of some recent research (Shockley et al., independent samples of men and women, without collecting data
2017) indicate that men and women appear to be more similar from their partners. However, we analyzed the perceptions of
than different in their WFC experiences; gender differences in these people (men and women) about their own involvement and
WFC appear to generally be small, regardless of which specific their partner’s involvement, and this perception was shown to be
subgroups are examined, and when there is meaningful variation significant. Nevertheless, it would be interesting to include the
in the magnitude of gender differences in WFC the key factors whole couple as a unit in future studies to increase the reliability
that determine this variation is currently not well understood. of the proposed model.
From this point of view, several alternative models other Second, this study is based only on quantitative analyses. It
than the conflict perspective might explain these results. This would be interesting to support these results with qualitative
tis the case of models such as the synergy between work and studies (through interviews or focus groups) that would help
family, positive balance, work-family facilitation, or work-family us to interpret the analyses of the results framed in both the
enrichment (Beutell and Wittig-Berman, 2008; Lapierre et al., traditional gender roles and cross-effect theories, but also in
2017), which would better understand the effect of gender on the people’s interpretations, increasing the model’s validity. They
individual’s relationship between work and family. would also allow us to understand the gender role in the direction
The use of this new model integrative approach is justified of the cross-effects of work stress from men to women, or from
by the social changes that characterize the values of the new women to men, as our results only partially support this cross-
generations, Gen Xers (born between 80 and 2000 population). effect, contrary to previous results (Bakker et al., 2008). In any
They seem to consider that both work and family are equally case, the quantitative methodology used in this study allowed us
important in their life, and try to find the most appropriate way to to detect, in a relatively simple way, the existence of changes in
reconcile both aspects (Beutell and Wittig-Berman, 2008), giving the relationship between gender and the traditional division of
less importance to presentism at work and being supporters of roles as a first step.
flexibility. This understanding of the work is based, in addition Also, the household chores used are those that might be
to the facilities provided the digital revolution and technologies generalized to mostly couples with children at school age.
for work, making workers less dependent of a particular physical However, we have not considered specific situations (i.e., living
space and a fixed schedule to perform their work, together in their house, living in a large or in a small town, grandparents
with the values of personal autonomy and responsibility that support in caring children, age of the children) that might have
are shared by this new generation. This facilitates that people help us to better describe the sample and interpret our results.
can now have more time to devote to other areas of their life Future studies could include this kind of sociodemographic
within the scope of non-work such as family or leisure, with a variables.
progressively greater importance in their social identity. In addition, may be other methodological limitations that may
From this point of view, research on work and family have conditioned the results. One of them is the imbalance in
interaction has evolved from the study of isolated variables within the percentage of men (63%) regarding women (37%). However,
the conflict and segmentation models toward more complex this limitation is assumable given the correlational nature of the
models that try to understand from the boundary theory, and the study and the breadth of the sample. Finally, the reliably of the

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Cerrato and Cifre Gender, Household Chores, and WFC

involvement of the partner in household chores is not too high But also organizations might participate in this social change.
(Cronbach’s alpha 0.62) which could raise doubts about its effect They might contribute for instance through the inclusion of
as an independent variable in the WFC in men and WC among family friendly politics to support the search for home-work
women. Nevertheless, it met widely accepted criteria to assume balance of their workers, men and women (Sprung et al., 2015;
its reliably (over 0.60). Lin et al., 2017; Matias et al., 2017). It would mean a way to
improve the quality of working life of their workers and, at the
Practical Implications same time, a return of investment (ROI) both for the organization
These results raise a number of practical implications for equality (Dowd et al., 2017) and for our, hopefully, every time more
between men and women in terms of gender issues in the equitable society.
effective management of organizations in order to establish
social integration and equality policies in both family and
work settings (Wharton, 2015). The management of work and ETHICS STATEMENT
working time within organizations must take into account
the social changes occurring in gender roles, and start to All participants provided written informed consents before to
consider that both men and women gradually tend to give complete the survey, in accordance with the Declaration of
the same importance to their work and family environments Helsinki, and researchers guaranteed the anonymity of data. This
(Kuo et al., 2018), with the accompanying increase in WFC study was approved by the institutional review board of the
and stress in both partners. Thus, although in many cases Faculty of Labour Relations and Social Work of the University
traditional gender roles are still valid (the family sphere of Basque Country.
continues to be more important for women than for men),
it is necessary to consider the vision and specific attitudes
that both workers have about their involvement in work and AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
family, and establish organizational policies that help to reconcile
both spheres in both genders (Lucas-Thompson and Goldberg, JC has been the director of review of the scientific literature,
2015). theoretical justification, methodology design, data collection,
Moreover, public and social institutions specializing in statistical analyses, and results description. EC has coordinated
family matters should incorporate these progressive changes in the improvement of the whole design and redaction paper,
traditional gender roles into their strategies, in order to facilitate including conclusions and research limitations.
the homogenization of women’s and men’s roles within the family
and workplace. For instance, they can design family counseling
and couple training campaigns that help them to discover how FUNDING
to best coordinate their dedication to the family in a way that
will reduce stress and conflict, and how to minimize WFC, even The authors gratefully thank the financial support provided by
translating it into work-family synergy. Generalitat Valenciana (Grant AICO/2017/073).

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Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 11 August 2018 | Volume 9 | Article 1330