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Trends in Women’s and Men’s Time Use, 1965–2012: Back to the Future?

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Gender and Couple Relationships

Part of the book series: National Symposium on Family Issues ((NSFI,volume 6))

Abstract

Women’s and men’s time use is more similar today than it was in the 1960s, when specialization in adult roles was at its peak, but convergence remains stubbornly out of sight. This chapter updates earlier trend studies of time use and finds that recent data confirm the most consistent findings from earlier analyses. The greater similarity of women’s and men’s time use today is due much more to changes among women than among men. Further, despite declines in women’s housework time, the increase in women’s childcare time and paid work time has resulted in a gender gap in leisure time. New findings from this analysis reveal the gender gap in leisure is accounted for by men’s higher levels of television time.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Maryland, 4133 Art-Sociology Bldg, College Park, MD, 20742, USA

    Dr. Liana C. Sayer

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  1. Dr. Liana C. Sayer
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Correspondence to Liana C. Sayer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Social Science Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

    Susan M. McHale

  2. Department of Sociology and Criminology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

    Valarie King

  3. Population Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

    Jennifer Van Hook

  4. Department of Sociology and Criminology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

    Alan Booth

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Sayer, L. (2016). Trends in Women’s and Men’s Time Use, 1965–2012: Back to the Future?. In: McHale, S., King, V., Van Hook, J., Booth, A. (eds) Gender and Couple Relationships. National Symposium on Family Issues, vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21635-5_2

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