Unpaid Work, Well-Being and the Allocation of Time in Contemporary Italy

Unpaid work in Italy is very unevenly distributed by gender with women bearing the main responsibility of care and housework even when they are employed. This Chapter investigates more in depth the uneven distribution of unpaid work in Italian couples by using a matched data set that allows us to analyse jointly different types of factors affecting partners’ unpaid working hours. By using this matched data set it is possible to relate unpaid work to family income and to analyse its distribution between partners according to their employment conditions and family structure. Women in bue collar positions employed in manufacturing do more hours of unpaid work and unpaid work increases at low family income level. The latter can be connected to the attempt by women of increasing with their unpaid work household’s well being at low income levels. The use of extended income as a proxy of well being, instead of only paid money income, shows a greater contribution of women to household’s well being and an uneven distribution of work inside Italian double earners families that should require the diffusion of more egalitarian policies to reduce the observed inequalities in the amount of work provided by gender.