I am an Associate Professor in Sociology, University of Oxford. I have been awarded an ERC consolidator grant (2018-2025) for a project on temporal structures of gender inequality in East Asian and Western countries. GenTime: www.gentime-project.org
This report aims to provide basic facts about gender inequality in income, time use, and wellbein... more This report aims to provide basic facts about gender inequality in income, time use, and wellbeing before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. We compare employment, income, time use, and well-being figures reported before and during the lockdown period (late March to April 2020) of the same group of individuals by analyzing longitudinal data from the 2020 UK Household Longitudinal Survey (UKHLS) COVID study and the full UKHLS data. Earlier studies on the topic are based on cross-sectional data with different survey designs and sample selections. -Women undertake the major share of housework and childcare and form 80% of the health and social care workers who are more exposed to the virus, among people aged between 20 to 49. -There was a 30% reduction in paid work time for both women and men, and the percentage was 45% among non-key workers. Women and men experienced a similar amount (3-4 hours) of an increase in weekly housework hours. We also note a comparable reduction in ...
We analyze time use data of four East Asian societies and 12 Western countries between 1985 and 2... more We analyze time use data of four East Asian societies and 12 Western countries between 1985 and 2016 to investigate the gender revolution in paid work, domestic work, and total work. The closing of gender gaps in paid work, domestic work, and total work time has stalled in the most recent decade in several countries. The magnitude of the gender gaps, cultural contexts, and welfare policies plays a key role in determining whether the gender revolution in the division of labor will stall or continue. Women undertake more total work than men across all societies: The gender gap ranges from 30 minutes to 2 hours a day. Our findings suggest that cultural norms interact with institutional contexts to affect the patterns of gender convergence in time use, and gender equality might settle at differing levels of egalitarianism across countries.
How does the association between gender attitudes and housework share vary across countries and t... more How does the association between gender attitudes and housework share vary across countries and time? We examine the second demographic transition as it unmasks in the association between gender attitudes and housework participation. Using data of the 2002 and 2012 International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) for 24 countries, we find that the association between gender attitudes and housework share became stronger over time in most countries, signifying that the Second Demographic Transition was in place. The results also show that the association varied across the 24 countries, reaching an equilibrium in many but at different stages. Our findings suggest that equilibria in the domestic division of labour take various forms and paces in the ISSP countries.
Using the data of the 2006 Japanese Survey on Time Use and Leisure Activities, we perform cluster... more Using the data of the 2006 Japanese Survey on Time Use and Leisure Activities, we perform cluster analysis and identify seven unique patterns of daily time-use patterns of co-resident family elder caregivers: (1) ‘Overworkers’, (2) ‘Full-time Workers’, (3) ‘Part-time Workers’, (4) ‘Intensive Caregivers’, (5) ‘Houseworkers’, (6) ‘Leisurely’, and (7) caregivers, who needed medical attention on the diary day (‘Emergency Diaries’). Our results show that the ‘Houseworkers’ and ‘Intensive Caregivers’ spend the most time on adult caregiving activities. Care activities for ‘Houseworkers’ are more likely to coincide with longer housework hours, increasing the total unpaid work volume. The analysis of demographic profiles suggests that similar daily patterns on weekdays and weekends do not belong to people with the same demographic characteristics. For instance, although on weekdays, ‘Leisurely Caregivers’ are mostly represented by the elderly taking care of other elderly, people of any age c...
We examine how the earnings, time use, and subjective wellbeing of different social groups change... more We examine how the earnings, time use, and subjective wellbeing of different social groups changed at different stages/waves of the pandemic in the United Kingdom (UK). We analyze longitudinal data from the latest UK Household Longitudinal Survey (UKHLS) COVID study and the earlier waves of the UKHLS to investigate within-individual changes in labor income, paid work time, housework time, childcare time, and distress level during the three lockdown periods and the easing period between them (from April 2020 to late March 2021). We find that as the pandemic developed, COVID-19 and its related lockdown measures in the UK had unequal and varying impacts on people’s income, time use, and subjective well-being based on their gender, ethnicity, and educational level. In conclusion, the extent of the impacts of COVID-19 and COVID-induced measures as well as the speed at which these impacts developed, varied across social groups with different types of vulnerabilities.
We investigated the role of teenage everyday social ties in educational outcomes by examining the... more We investigated the role of teenage everyday social ties in educational outcomes by examining the association between teenage time use and educational attainment in adulthood. The sample consisted of young people aged 10–18 from the 1979 Finnish Time Use Survey, and the same respondents’ educational attainment later in life recorded from population register data at the year of 40th birthday (n = 366 men and 393 women). We assessed the associations of time spent with the parents, on studying, leisure activities, as well as social connectedness with friends and participation in extracurricular activities, with educational outcomes. Our findings indicated that time spent with the father is positively associated with the likelihood of completing tertiary education for both daughters and sons. In particular, time spent with lower-education fathers was associated with teenagers’ future tertiary education. However, intense friendships and participation in extracurricular activities were no...
This study is the first to document how older adults in East Asian and Western societies spend th... more This study is the first to document how older adults in East Asian and Western societies spend their time, across four key dimensions of daily life, by respondent’s gender and education level. To do this, we undertook a pioneering effort and harmonized cross-sectional time-use data from East Asian countries (China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan) with data from the Multinational Time Use Study (Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, United Kingdom, United States; to which we refer as Western countries), collected between 2000 and 2015. Findings from bivariate and multivariate models suggest that daily time budgets of East Asian older adults are different from their counterparts in most Western countries. Specifically, gender gaps in domestic work, leisure, and sleep time were larger in East Asian contexts, than in Western countries. Gender gaps in paid work were larger in China compared to all other regions. Higher levels of educational attainment were ...
This study investigates factors that could explain why the association between the egalitarian ge... more This study investigates factors that could explain why the association between the egalitarian gender-role attitudes and the attitudes toward the importance of marriage (marital centrality) differs across societies. Using data from the International Social Survey Programme for 24 countries in 2002 and 2012 and multilevel modeling, we explore whether the Gender Revolution and the Second Demographic Transition frameworks could explain the country-level differences in the association between gender-role attitudes and marital centrality. We find that the negative association between the egalitarian gender-role attitudes and marital centrality is stronger in countries with a higher gender equality level and a higher fertility level. This work highlights the importance of considering the progress of the gender revolution and the second demographic transition to understand the relationship between gender equality and family formation.
On the surface, an average day of caregivers is not considerably different from non-caregivers, b... more On the surface, an average day of caregivers is not considerably different from non-caregivers, but caregivers spend more time doing housework and less–doing work or enjoying leisure activities. Using the Japanese Time Use Survey, we perform cluster analysis and identify five patterns of daily time-use lifestyles of elder caregivers: (1) the leisurely weekend caregivers, (2) the multitaskers, (3) the sandwich caregivers, (4) the working poor caregivers, and (5) the agriculture/construction traveler caregivers. Our results show that the first three groups spend the most time on caregiving activities, but a larger proportion of sandwich caregivers report doing eldercare on the diary day. Care activities for sandwich caregivers are more likely to coincide with housework, which increases the volume of the total unpaid work significantly. The fourth type of daily time use patterns and their demographic profiles reveal that they are heavily overrepresented by the working poor, hence the c...
This report aims to provide basic facts about gender inequality in income, time use, and wellbein... more This report aims to provide basic facts about gender inequality in income, time use, and wellbeing before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. We compare employment, income, time use, and well-being figures reported before and during the lockdown period (late March to April 2020) of the same group of individuals by analyzing longitudinal data from the 2020 UK Household Longitudinal Survey (UKHLS) COVID study and the full UKHLS data. Earlier studies on the topic are based on cross-sectional data with different survey designs and sample selections. -Women undertake the major share of housework and childcare and form 80% of the health and social care workers who are more exposed to the virus, among people aged between 20 to 49. -There was a 30% reduction in paid work time for both women and men, and the percentage was 45% among non-key workers. Women and men experienced a similar amount (3-4 hours) of an increase in weekly housework hours. We also note a comparable reduction in ...
We analyze time use data of four East Asian societies and 12 Western countries between 1985 and 2... more We analyze time use data of four East Asian societies and 12 Western countries between 1985 and 2016 to investigate the gender revolution in paid work, domestic work, and total work. The closing of gender gaps in paid work, domestic work, and total work time has stalled in the most recent decade in several countries. The magnitude of the gender gaps, cultural contexts, and welfare policies plays a key role in determining whether the gender revolution in the division of labor will stall or continue. Women undertake more total work than men across all societies: The gender gap ranges from 30 minutes to 2 hours a day. Our findings suggest that cultural norms interact with institutional contexts to affect the patterns of gender convergence in time use, and gender equality might settle at differing levels of egalitarianism across countries.
How does the association between gender attitudes and housework share vary across countries and t... more How does the association between gender attitudes and housework share vary across countries and time? We examine the second demographic transition as it unmasks in the association between gender attitudes and housework participation. Using data of the 2002 and 2012 International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) for 24 countries, we find that the association between gender attitudes and housework share became stronger over time in most countries, signifying that the Second Demographic Transition was in place. The results also show that the association varied across the 24 countries, reaching an equilibrium in many but at different stages. Our findings suggest that equilibria in the domestic division of labour take various forms and paces in the ISSP countries.
Using the data of the 2006 Japanese Survey on Time Use and Leisure Activities, we perform cluster... more Using the data of the 2006 Japanese Survey on Time Use and Leisure Activities, we perform cluster analysis and identify seven unique patterns of daily time-use patterns of co-resident family elder caregivers: (1) ‘Overworkers’, (2) ‘Full-time Workers’, (3) ‘Part-time Workers’, (4) ‘Intensive Caregivers’, (5) ‘Houseworkers’, (6) ‘Leisurely’, and (7) caregivers, who needed medical attention on the diary day (‘Emergency Diaries’). Our results show that the ‘Houseworkers’ and ‘Intensive Caregivers’ spend the most time on adult caregiving activities. Care activities for ‘Houseworkers’ are more likely to coincide with longer housework hours, increasing the total unpaid work volume. The analysis of demographic profiles suggests that similar daily patterns on weekdays and weekends do not belong to people with the same demographic characteristics. For instance, although on weekdays, ‘Leisurely Caregivers’ are mostly represented by the elderly taking care of other elderly, people of any age c...
We examine how the earnings, time use, and subjective wellbeing of different social groups change... more We examine how the earnings, time use, and subjective wellbeing of different social groups changed at different stages/waves of the pandemic in the United Kingdom (UK). We analyze longitudinal data from the latest UK Household Longitudinal Survey (UKHLS) COVID study and the earlier waves of the UKHLS to investigate within-individual changes in labor income, paid work time, housework time, childcare time, and distress level during the three lockdown periods and the easing period between them (from April 2020 to late March 2021). We find that as the pandemic developed, COVID-19 and its related lockdown measures in the UK had unequal and varying impacts on people’s income, time use, and subjective well-being based on their gender, ethnicity, and educational level. In conclusion, the extent of the impacts of COVID-19 and COVID-induced measures as well as the speed at which these impacts developed, varied across social groups with different types of vulnerabilities.
We investigated the role of teenage everyday social ties in educational outcomes by examining the... more We investigated the role of teenage everyday social ties in educational outcomes by examining the association between teenage time use and educational attainment in adulthood. The sample consisted of young people aged 10–18 from the 1979 Finnish Time Use Survey, and the same respondents’ educational attainment later in life recorded from population register data at the year of 40th birthday (n = 366 men and 393 women). We assessed the associations of time spent with the parents, on studying, leisure activities, as well as social connectedness with friends and participation in extracurricular activities, with educational outcomes. Our findings indicated that time spent with the father is positively associated with the likelihood of completing tertiary education for both daughters and sons. In particular, time spent with lower-education fathers was associated with teenagers’ future tertiary education. However, intense friendships and participation in extracurricular activities were no...
This study is the first to document how older adults in East Asian and Western societies spend th... more This study is the first to document how older adults in East Asian and Western societies spend their time, across four key dimensions of daily life, by respondent’s gender and education level. To do this, we undertook a pioneering effort and harmonized cross-sectional time-use data from East Asian countries (China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan) with data from the Multinational Time Use Study (Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, United Kingdom, United States; to which we refer as Western countries), collected between 2000 and 2015. Findings from bivariate and multivariate models suggest that daily time budgets of East Asian older adults are different from their counterparts in most Western countries. Specifically, gender gaps in domestic work, leisure, and sleep time were larger in East Asian contexts, than in Western countries. Gender gaps in paid work were larger in China compared to all other regions. Higher levels of educational attainment were ...
This study investigates factors that could explain why the association between the egalitarian ge... more This study investigates factors that could explain why the association between the egalitarian gender-role attitudes and the attitudes toward the importance of marriage (marital centrality) differs across societies. Using data from the International Social Survey Programme for 24 countries in 2002 and 2012 and multilevel modeling, we explore whether the Gender Revolution and the Second Demographic Transition frameworks could explain the country-level differences in the association between gender-role attitudes and marital centrality. We find that the negative association between the egalitarian gender-role attitudes and marital centrality is stronger in countries with a higher gender equality level and a higher fertility level. This work highlights the importance of considering the progress of the gender revolution and the second demographic transition to understand the relationship between gender equality and family formation.
On the surface, an average day of caregivers is not considerably different from non-caregivers, b... more On the surface, an average day of caregivers is not considerably different from non-caregivers, but caregivers spend more time doing housework and less–doing work or enjoying leisure activities. Using the Japanese Time Use Survey, we perform cluster analysis and identify five patterns of daily time-use lifestyles of elder caregivers: (1) the leisurely weekend caregivers, (2) the multitaskers, (3) the sandwich caregivers, (4) the working poor caregivers, and (5) the agriculture/construction traveler caregivers. Our results show that the first three groups spend the most time on caregiving activities, but a larger proportion of sandwich caregivers report doing eldercare on the diary day. Care activities for sandwich caregivers are more likely to coincide with housework, which increases the volume of the total unpaid work significantly. The fourth type of daily time use patterns and their demographic profiles reveal that they are heavily overrepresented by the working poor, hence the c...
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