Contributions to an Analysis of Residential Stratification, the Valuation of Domestic Labor, and Time Use in Brazil

ABSTRACT

The following article provides an analysis of unpaid domestic labor according to the alignment of two perspectives: social stratification and the domestic economy. To do so, we have developed a residential stratification scale based on an employment of item response theory for collection of the goods used in domestic production for homes participating in the Belo Horizonte Time Use Survey. The use of this scale facilitates a valuation of unpaid activities in the domestic sphere and the occupation of “housewife”, as well as a study of the gender division of labor according to social stratum. The reliability of the scale is demonstrated by its extremely high correlation with an identical scale developed according to data from the Family Budget Survey, as well as its relatively high correlation with other stratification indexes based on the occupations of the individuals surveyed. The main results reveal both the persistence of the gender division of labor across all socioeconomic strata, as well as the low negative correlation between status and time spent on domestic tasks, except among men during weekends, when the relationship is positive.

domestic labor; gender division of labor; residential stratification; item response theory; time use