#12387. Who brings more gender equality in couple’s time use in Hong Kong—co-resident elderly parents or helpers?

August 2026publication date
Proposal available till 06-06-2025
4 total number of authors per manuscript0 $

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Journal’s subject area:
Anthropology;
Demography;
Gender Studies;
Sociology and Political Science;
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Abstract:
Extended households are declining while households with helpers are increasing. More and more couples resort to hiring helpers to outsource domestic work. Currently, it is not clear whether elderly parents and helpers would have the same impact on couples’ time use. The study examines couples’ paid work time and domestic work time, as well as the gender gap in time use in different household types (i.e. couple-only households, households with elderly parents, and households with helpers). The results show that couples’ total domestic work is reduced to a greater extent in the helper household than that in the elderly-parent household. But this difference disappears if couples live with relatively younger, healthy, and retired parents. Although the impact of parents and hired helpers would reduce couples’ total domestic work time similarly, they are different in the sense of “help for whom”: hired helpers reduce the gender gap in paid work time and domestic work time, mainly by influencing wives’ time use; elderly parents reduce couples’ domestic work time in a less gendered way, favoring both husbands and wives. Elderly parents and helpers could reduce couples’ domestic workload more or less, but whether gender equality is promoted through outsourcing is worth more attention.
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