Augmenting Wives' Household Work The Dilemma of Gender Specialization : Substituting and

The greater the gender specialization in marriage, the less the overlap inthe skill sets and motivations of the partners. The less the overlap, the lessreadily can the labor of the husband substitute for or augment the laborof the wife (and vice versa). With data on 26 countries from the 2001International Social Survey Program, this specialization-substitutionargument is evaluated based on wives’ preferences for household helpand emotional support. As predicted, women in more specialized mar-riages are more likely to favor kin and others over the husband for assis-tance. In countries where the public approves of traditional gender rolesand men avoid “woman’s work” in the home, wives are more likely thantheir counterparts elsewhere to prefer the assistance of kin and othersover the husband’s help.KEY WORDS • specialization • gender • household labor• emotionalsupport • cross-national research