Household work in the UK: An analysis of the British Household Panel Survey 1994

This paper examines the organisation and performance of household work amon g dual earner couples of working age. Utilising data from the British House hold Panel Survey (BHPS) 1994 the research employs linear modelling techniq ues in order to model the variables associated with both the time spent on household work and the sharing of household work between men and women livi ng together. In particular, household circumstances and characteristics of partners are considered as independent variables. The findings show that th e time men and women spend in paid employment, their partners' time in paid employment, economic power, attitudes, social class and presence of childr en emerge as variables significantly associated with the two measures of ho usehold work performance. The explained variation for time spent on househo ld work is also much higher for women than men. The results show that women continue to carry a 'dual burden' of paid and unpaid work which disadvanta ges them in terms of employment, income and welfare.