Sharing housework between husbands and wives: how to improve marital satisfaction for working wives in Japan

Table 3 Average share of spouse’s housework by satisfaction with the spouse and by wife’s employment status

Wife’s satisfaction with husband	Wife not working			Wife working part-time			Wife working full-time
Wife’s satisfaction with husband	Husband’s weekday share of housework	Husband’s weekend share of housework	N	Husband’s weekday share of housework	Husband’s weekend share of housework	N	Husband’s weekday share of housework	Husband’s weekend share of housework	N
1 = completely unhappy	2.59	4.84	32	4.29	8.66	70	6.99	8.72	69
2	3.58	8.95	57	5.82	8.51	104	9.66	15.43	74
3	4.29	10.62	161	5.46	12.26	235	12.79	18.53	169
4	4.68	15.51	384	6.76	15.69	522	14.79	19.82	313
5	6.24	18.80	387	7.99	16.22	413	19.54	24.37	294
6 = completely happy	7.69	23.93	202	10.28	21.49	201	22.14	30.81	216
Husband’s satisfaction with wife	Wife not working			Wife working part-time			Wife working full-time
Husband’s satisfaction with wife	Wife’s weekday share of housework	Wife’s weekend share of housework	N	Wife’s weekday share of housework	Wife’s weekend share of housework	N	Wife’s weekday share of housework	Wife’s weekend share of housework	N
1 = completely unhappy	68.00	49.06	16	76.58	69.21	19	55.29	55.43	28
2	85.66	77.94	50	84.67	68.33	48	66.67	62.78	45
3	83.05	72.30	138	82.95	73.10	95	64.47	61.92	104
4	87.12	74.55	362	85.36	73.85	266	67.77	63.11	293
5	86.64	73.75	608	85.00	72.35	344	68.73	61.96	351
6 = completely happy	86.08	72.04	360	85.15	74.20	206	69.50	64.66	208

Note: Satisfaction with spouse is rated on a 6-point scale: 1 = “completely unhappy” and 6 = “completely happy”