Education and gender gap in couples’ time use: evidence from China

ABSTRACT

Using the 2010 China Family Panel Studies data, this article provides new evidence on education and gender gap in time use among Chinese couples. Across urban and rural areas and on both work and non-work days, wives spent much more time on personal and household care, while husbands spent more time on work and leisure/social activities. For urban wives, having the same or higher levels of education than their husbands helped narrow these gender gaps in time use. The results were more mixed for rural couples. These results shed light on policy debates regarding gender inequality in China and beyond.

KEYWORDS:

• Time use
• gender gap
• education
• couples
• China

Acknowledgments

We thank Xiao-yuan Dong, Carl Riskin, Terry Sicular, the editor, and anonymous reviewers for offering constructive feedback and suggestions. The data used in this project are from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) funded by 985 Program of Peking University and carried out by the Institute of Social Science Survey of Peking University. We thank the funders and CFPS team members for providing the data, which makes this study possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Columbia Population Research Center, which is in turn supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (P2CHD058486) and the Office of the Provost at Columbia University; and by the Fordham University Research Fellowship at Columbia University.

Notes on contributors

Fuhua Zhai

Fuhua Zhai is an Associate Professor at Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service and a Research Associate at Columbia University China Center for Social Policy. His research interests include early childhood education, early interventions, child maltreatment and child welfare, cultural values and childrearing practices, and cross-national child and family policies and programs.

Qin Gao

Qin Gao is a Professor at Columbia University School of Social Work and Director of the Columbia University China Center for Social Policy. Her research examines poverty, inequality, gender, migration, and social policies in China and their cross-national comparisons. Gao’s book, Welfare, Work, and Poverty: Social Assistance in China (Oxford University Press, 2017) presents a systematic and comprehensive evaluation of the world’s largest means-tested welfare program.

Xiaoran Wang

Xiaoran Wang is a PhD student at Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service and a Research Fellow at Columbia University China Center for Social Policy. Xiaoran's research interests include child and family well-being, early childhood intervention, and policies and social services for children with special needs.