education and the division of household labor in dual-earner families

This article is the first report of a study on policies and the division of paid and unpaid work in families in Finland. The article examines the division ofhousehold labor and its determinants in Finnish dual-eamer families. The main objective is to examine whether education has any impact on the division ofunpaid work and men's participation in it controlling fr other variables. It was found, that among women, rising educational levels, non-traditional attitudes and younger age cohort had a negative impact on time spent on housework, while among men only reduced time in employment and nontraditional attitudes increased the contribution at home. While both men and women with higher education and non-traditional attitudes were more likely to perceive their relative division as more equal, an analysis of the absolute number of hours spent on housework seems to support the notion that more equal distribution of tasks at home is more or less a result of younger and educated women doing less housework. The data comes from a survey conducted in 1998, in which 2,500 Finnish men and women were questioned about time use, employment, attitudes about gender roles, work and family, andreconciliation ofwork and family. The Finnish study is part ofa Europeanresearch project which studies the division oflabor in families in different cultural, political and societal settings.