ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sociol.
Sec. Sociology of Families
Impact of Occupational Pairing on Women's Fertility Plans: Roles of Domestic Burden and Housework Satisfaction
Fudan University, Shanghai, China
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Abstract
This article discusses how the division of housework mediates the relationship between intra-couple socio-economic differences and wives' fertility intentions. Both objective and subjective aspects of housework equality are considered. The study finds that mating patterns influence household labor dynamics, with women who "marry up" bearing a heavier housework load. The paradox of contented wives who undertake most housework suggests that (in)equality does not necessarily correlate with (dis)satisfaction. Multiple mediation analysis reveals that both the actual division of housework and wives' perceived satisfaction with this suppress the direct relationship between occupational assortative mating and wives' fertility intentions. These two mediators function as multiple suppressors in heterogamous marriages. In non-core middle-class and working-class homogamy, only the suppression effect of wives' relative housework burden is significant.
Summary
Keywords
fertility intention, GSEM, objective and subjective aspects of housework, occupational assortative marriage, Suppression effects
Received
24 April 2025
Accepted
29 January 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Dang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Yuan Dang
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