Date : 2022-10-19
Title:Employing domestic workers and gender gap in domestic labor among working parents: An effective strategy?
Speaker: Prof. CHEUNG Adam K.L. (Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Hong Kong Baptist University)
Moderator: Prof. CHOI Susanne Yuk-ping (Professor, Department of Sociology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Venue: Hui Yeung Shing Building G04, CUHK
Abstract:
This two-stage mixed-method study pulls the literature of domestic outsourcing and intensive parenting together to investigate the role of employing live-in domestic helpers in the time-use patterns of household labor among working parents in Hong Kong. Data from a representative household survey of working parents (N = 791) show that working mothers who hire live-in domestic help spent less time in housework. Yet, the reduction in housework time was partially offset by the managing tasks brought about by the use of live-in help. Working parents, especially mothers, with live-in helpers spent significantly more time on childcare than did working parents without such help. The study also draws on qualitative data from in-depth interviews (N = 20) to unpack the meaning of hiring help and its relationship with the notion and practices of parenting. Our study shows that employing domestic helpers rigidifies instead of closing the gender gap in domestic labor.
Speaker’s Biography:
Adam Cheung is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Hong Kong Baptist University. His research interests include gender ideology, division of household labor, family relations, and domestic violence in Hong Kong and other Asian societies. His research appears in Journal of Marriage and Family, Social Science Research, Current Sociology, Journal of Family Issues, Demographic Research, Population Research and Policy Review, Violence Against Women, and other peer-reviewed journals. He received honorable mention in Early Stage Family Scholar Award from the Research Committee on Family Research (RC06) of the International Sociological Association.
Language: English
Registration: https://bit.ly/3eJ0A5d