TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Binder, Ariel J.
        TI  - Gender Convergence in Couples' Time Use Following the COVID-19 Pandemic
        PY  - 2026/May/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 18657
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp18657
        AB  - This paper uses American Time Use Survey data to show that prime-age men's and women's average weekly work hours followed parallel trends from 2011-19, but then abruptly converged in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic. This convergence was driven by the changing behavior of couples, for whom the gender gap in weekly hours of paid work closed by 4.3 on a base of 14.7 (29.3%). While historical gender convergence has been driven by wives, husbands accounted for three-quarters (all) of the recent convergence in paid work (unpaid housework). I find that two labor market factors associated with the pandemic - sectoral reallocation and remote work-exposure - explain little of observed time-use changes in samples of husbands and fathers, although they explain 44% of the shrinking college-noncollege gap in paid work observed among fathers. These results suggest an ongoing shift in labor supply factors associated with fatherhood that may be stronger among the college-educated.
        KW  - time use
KW  - employment
KW  - labor supply
KW  - housework
KW  - remote work
KW  - leisure
KW  - fatherhood
KW  - gender norms
KW  - COVID-19
        ER  -