Homemaking and women's well-being in Europe. Effect of divorce risk,
selection and dominating gender-role attitudes.
Malgorzata Mikucka (CEPS/INSTEAD)
Research Seminar
February 23rd, 2011. 11h00
Abstract
Whereas it is known that employment status strongly impacts individual well-being, the
literature concerning the effect of homemaking is so far inconclusive. The paper investigates
the effect of being a housewife on well-being of women, using European Values Study data
for 36 European countries (year 2008) and multilevel regression methodology.
Results show that the impact of homemaking on well-being is overall positive and it varies
across countries. Three possible explanations of this variation are tested.
First hypothesis concerns traditionalism of gender-role attitudes in a country. Results
confirm that in countries with more traditional gender-role attitudes homemakers enjoy
higher well-being premium, however this holds only for the Western Europe. In the East and
in the total sample the effect is insignificant. At the same time, there is a strong individual
effect: housewives with traditional gender-role attitudes declare higher subjective well-
being.
Second hypothesis refers to the economic risk of the intra-household specialization to
homemaking, and states that higher divorce risk should decrease well-being of housewives.
Contrary to expectations, higher divorce risk in a country is accompanied by higher well-
being of housewives. I interpret this result as a sign of equality concerns incorporated into
legal divorce procedures.
Third hypothesis concerns positive and negative selection to homemaking. Results show
that the relationship between labor market activity and well-being of housewives is
curvilinear. Highest well-being gains from homemaking occur in countries with middle level
of labor market activity of women.