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A Typology of Work‐Family Arrangements Among Dual‐Earner Couples in Norway
Author(s) -
Kitterød Ragni Hege,
Lappegård Trude
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
family relations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1741-3729
pISSN - 0197-6664
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-3729.2012.00725.x
Subject(s) - typology , norwegian , demographic economics , work (physics) , latent class model , paid work , sociology , survey data collection , dual (grammatical number) , psychology , labour economics , economics , working hours , mechanical engineering , art , linguistics , philosophy , statistics , mathematics , literature , anthropology , engineering
A symmetrical family model of two workers or caregivers is a political goal in many western European countries. We explore how common this family type is in Norway, a country with high gender‐equality ambitions, by using a multinomial latent class model to develop a typology of dual‐earner couples with children based on the partners' allocations of paid and unpaid work. Using data on 2,617 respondents from the Norwegian Generations and Gender Survey, we estimate 4 classes, of which 2 are characterized by a fairly equal sharing between the partners and 2 have more traditional arrangements. Equal sharing is practiced by 4 out of 10 couples and is most likely when the partners are well educated and work regular hours and the father is in public‐sector employment. A traditional practice is likely when the partners have less education, the mother has health problems, the father has private‐sector employment, and the partners work irregular hours.