Children of the Revolution: The continued unevenness of the gender revolution in housework, childcare and work time across birth cohorts

Abstract

This study investigates whether parents spend different amounts of time in housework, childcare, and employment across birth cohorts. We apply data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS; 2003–2018) and age-cohort-period models to compare parents' time spent in these activities across three successive birth cohorts: Baby Boomers (1946–1965), Generation X (1966–1980) and Millennials (1981–2000). For housework time, we find no evidence of cohort change for mothers but for fathers, we observe an increase in housework time with each subsequent cohort. For time spent caring for children, we identify a period effect whereby mothers and fathers regardless of which cohort they belong to are spendin..