Despite a growing acceptance of egalitarian gender attitudes, there is no empirical evidence about the division of roles between wives and husbands and its variation across their family life in the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). This paper uses data from the 2014 to 2015 Time Use Survey, representing urban areas of the IRI, to examine the dynamics of the spouses’ division of roles across their family life. The findings confirm a gender division of roles. The mapping of the spouses’ role behaviours during their family life provides a combination of gender similarities and differences. Role configurations (or role variations across family life) clearly differ between spouses but the pathways (or life-course variations in role behaviours) are quite similar in some roles (i.e., community, individual and parental roles) and different in others (i.e., occupational and domestic roles). To the extent that the existing gender patterns are perceived as unjustified, they can be consequential not only for marital satisfaction and quality, but also for marriage and childbearing decisions.

尽管人们越来越接受平等的性别态度，但没有经验证据表明伊朗伊斯兰共和国 (IRI) 妻子和丈夫之间的角色分工及其在家庭生活中的差异。本文使用 2014 年至 2015 年时间使用调查的数据，代表 IRI 的城市地区，研究配偶在家庭生活中角色分工的动态。调查结果证实了角色的性别分工。配偶在家庭生活中的角色行为映射提供了性别相似性和差异性的组合。配偶之间的角色配置（或家庭生活中的角色变化）明显不同，但路径（或角色行为的生命历程变化）在某些角色（即社区、个人和父母角色）中非常相似，而在其他角色中（即，职业和家庭角色）。如果现有的性别模式被认为是不合理的，它们不仅会影响婚姻满意度和质量，还会影响婚姻和生育决定。