To what extent is domestic labor still perceived as a female responsibility? Do traditional gender norms contribute to its persistently unequal division within households? To answer these questions, we design a survey experiment where an incentivized measure of normative expectations (Krupka and Weber, 2013) is embedded within a representative survey of the Italian population (N=1,501). In this way, we bridge two strands of literature: survey-based elicitation of attitudes and incentivized experimental measures of social appropriateness. Participants evaluate the social appropriateness of chore allocations in vignettes where partners’ labor supply, household division, and the gender of the proposer vary. We show that, when partners have the same working status, equal sharing of household chores is widely recognized as socially appropriate across generations. However, judgments of unequal allocations reveal the presence of a framing effect and a gender double standard, especially among middle and older generations. Younger generations exhibit greater internalization of egalitarian norms, suggesting an ongoing shift in attitudes. Finally, we find that perceived norms on the division of household labor, measured through normative expectations, are strongly associated with women’s labor market outcomes at the regional level. These findings highlight the cognitive biases sustaining gender inequality inside and outside the household.

Keywords: Gender norms, Krupka&Weber elicitation method, Representative surveys, Domestic Chores, Framing effects, Double Standard. 

JEL Classification: A13; C90; D01; J16. 

Authors:

• Francesca Barigozzi 
  University of Bologna 
• Caterina Gaggini 
  Aarhus University 
• Natalia Montinari 
  University of Bologna