Gender attitudes and practices among married and cohabiting parents

Chao, Shih-Yi, Berrington, Ann and Perelli-Harris, Brienna (2020) Gender attitudes and practices among married and cohabiting parents (Centre for Policy Change Policy Briefings, 57) University of Southampton. ESRC Centre for Population Change 4pp.

Record type: Monograph (Project Report)

Abstract

The number of couples who live together but are not married (cohabiting) has surged in the UK, and a new family type has been created: cohabiting couples with children. It is important to understand the differences between married and cohabiting families to form effective social policy. Knowing gender attitudes and practices helps understand gender inequality and social economic conditions among cohabiting and married parents. We might expect that cohabiting couples are more modern in their attitudes compared with their married counterparts. Cohabiting women may be more likely to be in paid work and cohabiting men may be more likely to share housework duties. We might also expect that women in cohabiting partnerships are less willing to specialise in domestic work; cohabitors in the UK have fewer legal protections, especially upon separation, so specialisation in unpaid work at home might be seen as more risky for cohabiting women. In this briefing, we summarise our findings on the gender roles of cohabiting and married parents.

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