Housework, intergenerational dependency and challenges to traditional gender roles

Abstract

This chapter investigates predictors of domestic work in two-generation households in which young people aged 15-34 co-reside with their parents. While we know about the gender division of housework among adult couples (e.g. Bianchi and Milkie 2010), the literature on the domestic work of children and teenagers is growing (Evertsson 2006; Salman Rizavi and Sofer 2010; Miller 2012). However, the domestic work of co-resident young adults and their parents is largely unexplored (Mitchell 2004). This significant knowledge gap has occurred despite the number of young people who co-reside with their parents (e.g. Mitchell 2004; ABS 2013a) and divisions of domestic work being a marker of workload and gender equity (Craig and Baxter 2016). Using nationally representative time use data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) from 2006, we address this gap by examining the domestic contribution of young adults, together with their parents’ domestic work time.