ABSTRACT

Guided by equity theory, we examine how hours of housework by spouse, perceived fairness of housework division, and joint decision-making predict marital quality in Japan. Our analysis of data from the Survey of Midlife Development in Japan (MIDJA) shows that husbands who say their wives perform more hours of housework than themselves report higher marital quality, while no comparable pattern is present for wives. On the other hand, perceived fairness of housework division has a positive effect on marital quality for wives only. Regardless of gender, joint decision-making positively affects marital quality, although this effect is larger for women. We conclude that even in marriages with an uneven division of housework, which are common in societies such as Japan with serious labour market gender inequalities, joint decision-making may allow for greater empathy and less strain.

摘要

在公平理论的指导下，我们研究了配偶做家务的时间、家务分工的公平性和共同决策如何预测日本的婚姻质量。我们对日本中年发展调查 (MIDJA) 数据的分析表明，自称妻子做家务时间比自己多的丈夫报告的婚姻质量更高，而妻子则没有可比的模式。另一方面，家务分工的感知公平性仅对妻子的婚姻质量产生积极影响。无论性别如何，共同决策都会对婚姻质量产生积极影响，尽管这种影响对女性来说更大。我们得出的结论是，即使在诸如日本等劳动力市场性别不平等严重的社会中，家务分工不均衡的婚姻中，