The Economic Context of Labor Allocation

This study investigates the process by which married women and men allocate their labor between employment and housework. The two forms of labor are conceptualized as economically productive and subject to economic determinants at three levels: the macroeconomic structure, the family economy, and individual human capital characteristics. Data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics indicate that both women's market and domestic labor are highly sensitive to the family economy, whereas men's market labor is subject to the macroeconomic structure and men's domestic labor is little affected by its economic context. Implications of these patterns for the process of gender stratification are described.