A joint model of household time use and task assignment for elderly couples with multiple constraints

Household time-use patterns are expected to reflect each household member’s daily activity participation and duration with intra-household interactions constrained by multiple budgets. Among various activities, the allocated activity derived from undertaking a household task is studied relatively less in the literature. Who will take an allocated activity is a discrete choice problem of household task assignment, and once a household member is assigned with one household task, other members will have more time to do other activities. To better understand household time-use patterns affected by household task assignment, this paper proposed a joint household-level multiple discrete-continuous extreme value-multinomial logit (MDCEV-MNL) model with multiple constraints. The Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) method combined with the simulation-based maximum likelihood estimation method is proposed to estimate the proposed model. Based on the household activity-travel data from Beijing of China, the proposed model is customized to explore elderly couples’ time-use patterns with intra-household interactions affected by household task assignment. Following the findings, policy implications are suggested to build an age-friendly society.

‘Let’s have the men clean up’: Interpersonally communicated stereotypes as a resource for resisting gender-role prescribed activities

This article examines a productive use of communicating gender stereotypes in interpersonal conversation: to resist activities traditionally prescribed according to gender. The analyses video-taped naturally occurring US household interactions and present three techniques participants may deploy to contest gender expectations: mobilizing categories, motivating alignment and reframing action. We show how gender is an accountable category in relation to household labor, and how gender categories provide a resource by which participants can non-seriously solicit and resist participation in domestic gender-prescribed activities. Our analysis provides some insight into how participants use gender stereotypes in everyday talk and what functions such talk serves.