There is significant heterogeneity in actual skill use within occupations even though occupations are differentiated by the task workers should perform during work. Using data on 12 countries which are available both in the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies survey and International Social Survey Program, we show that women use their cognitive skills less than men even within the same occupation. The gap in skill intensity cannot be explained by differences in worker characteristics or in cognitive skills. Instead, we show that living in a partnership significantly increases the skill use of men compared with women. We argue that having a partner affects skill use through time allocation as the gender penalty of partnered women is halved once we control for working hours and hours spent on housework. Finally, we do not find evidence of workplace discrimination against women.

即使职业因工人在工作中应执行的任务而有所不同，职业中实际技能的使用也存在很大的异质性。使用国际成人能力评估计划调查和国际社会调查计划均提供的有关12个国家的数据，我们表明，即使在同一职业中，女性使用的认知技能也比男性少。技能强度的差距无法通过工人特征或认知技能的差异来解释。相反，我们表明，与女性相比，同居生活显着提高了男性的技能使用。我们认为拥有伴侣会通过时间分配影响技能使用，因为一旦我们控制了工作时间和花在做家务上的时间，就可以将伴侣女性的性别惩罚减半。最后，