The Impact of Reduced Paid Work on Gender Disparities in Unpaid Labor: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Although still debated, the relationship between paid and unpaid work is crucial for uncovering a potential determinant of persisting gender inequality. Reductions in paid work and their consequences for the gendered performance of unpaid work have the potential to shed light on this relationship. However, there is still no clear answer to the question of whether and how reductions in paid work (including reductions in working hours, job losses, and retirement) affect the amount of time spent on unpaid work by gender, and what factors explain the variation in existing studies. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of the existing literature on the topic. We analyzed 198 unique estimates of the effect of reductions in paid work on time spent on housework and care work in different-sex couples. Our findings indicate that both men and women respond to reductions in paid work by increasing the time they spend on unpaid work. Although the effect is stronger for men than for women, it is small and quite heterogeneous across studies. Therefore, it is insufficient to reduce gender inequality in the division of unpaid work.