A More Complex Image of the Relationship between Fathers’ Time with Children and Maternal Employment

Kathryn Hynes, Pennsylvania State University
Kaylin Greene, Pennsylvania State University

Prior research has shown only a limited association between fathers’ time with children and maternal work hours. A large literature now focuses on theorizing and studying couples’ division of household labor to understand why men do not appear to have changed their domestic work as much as women have changed their employment. This paper uses time diary data from the 1997 Child Development Supplement to examine the relationship between maternal employment and fathers’ time with children. In particular we examine whether more nuanced, couple-level measures of time with children can inform our understanding of couples’ division of labor. We look at fathers’ time with children relative to mothers’ time with children and we separate out father-only, mother-only, and joint parental time. We discuss the implications of our findings for research on couples’ different perceptions of men’s participation in care-giving.