The effect of work schedule and income on the division of domestic labor among couples in New-York, Tokyo, and Paris
The aim of the article is to explore the distribution of patterns of domestic work in couples according to spouses’ employment situations in three metropolitan areas: New York, Paris and Tokyo. These cities belong to countries with similar level of socio-economic development, while they are located in different institutional contexts and societal structures. Based on the theoretical frameworks of “welfare-state” and “family models”, and using an international time-use survey conducted in 2007 among middle and upper class couples living in the conurbations of New York, Paris and Tokyo, we can point out significant results at three levels: a less unequal situation in the United States than in other countries with a higher parity of spouses’ domestic investments regardless of their professional activity; a greater proximity between Parisian and Tokyo couples in terms of sharing domestic working time while the former are closer to New Yorkers by their characteristics; Finally, it is in the conservative welfare states, such as Japan and France, that both the temporal availability of spouses and the contribution of each to household income weigh the most on the actual distribution of domestic activity.