Housework imbalance impacts fertility and female employment
A Banca d'Italia study finds that unequal housework distribution significantly impacts female employment and fertility rates. Rebalancing household chores can increase female labor supply and, with childcare outsourcing, boost fertility.
The hidden cost of traditional roles
The research highlights that women universally undertake a larger share of housework, including childcare, compared to men.
In Italy, this disparity amounted to approximately 30 hours per week in 2013, negatively affecting women's labor market participation and total realized fertility.
The study estimates that men's effective weight in housework production is only 30 percent of women's, even after accounting for labor market gaps, perceived skills, and preferences.
This housework imbalance has an impact on female employment comparable to an additional 50 percent gender wage gap and accounts for 70 percent of the 'child penalty' in women's earnings.
In an unconstrained scenario with no gender gaps and full nursery school coverage, fertility could increase by 63 percent to 2.28 children per woman, and female employment by 40 percent to 0.97, with the housework channel driving two-thirds of the employment effect.
The model also replicates the varying correlations between fertility and female employment observed across Italian regions and historical trends.
Modeling household dynamics and childcare demand
The paper proposes a dynamic life-cycle collective household model that integrates time use, endogenous fertility, and employment decisions, alongside limited access to nursery schools.
Using restricted Italian time-use survey data from ISTAT (2002, 2008, 2013), the model's parameters are estimated to match current time-use patterns.
Key stylized facts inform the model: marriage significantly lowers female employment, women consistently do more housework regardless of employment status, and the presence of children further increases household specialization.
The model argues that a more equal division of housework, by increasing men's opportunity cost of children, drives demand for outsourced childcare.
When this demand is met, both fertility and female employment rise, explaining the positive correlation seen in Italy's Center-North where childcare supply is higher.
A clear policy lever for demographic challenges
This study provides compelling quantitative evidence for the long-debated economic and social costs of traditional gender roles in household labor.
Its findings clearly identify the unequal division of housework as a significant barrier to both female labor force participation and fertility rates.
The research offers a concrete policy lever for governments facing demographic challenges, suggesting that interventions promoting a more equitable distribution of domestic tasks and expanding childcare infrastructure could yield substantial societal benefits.