Gendering digital labor: Work and family digital communication across 29 countries

Hu, Yang and Qian, Yue (2024) Gendering digital labor: Work and family digital communication across 29 countries. Community, Work and Family. ISSN 1366-8803 (In Press)

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Text (Hu_Qian_Gendering digital labor) - Accepted Version
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Text (Hu_Qian_Gendering digital labor) - Accepted Version
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Abstract

With rapid digitalization, people increasingly use information and communication technologies (ICTs) in work and family lives. Nevertheless, it remains under-researched how the labor of using ICTs for digital communication is gendered across the domains of work and family, especially in a cross-national context. Analyzing data from Round 10 of the European Social Survey, this study examines gender differences in digital communication across work and family domains in 29 countries. Using latent profile analysis, we identify five distinctive profiles of work-family digital communication – dual-medium (most prevalent), dual-low, high work-only, dual-high, and high family-only (least prevalent) digital communication – with notable gender differences. Compared with men, women are less likely to have high work-only digital communication but are more likely to have high family-only and dual-high work-family digital communication. Multilevel models reveal that among those with better digital literacy and among those who work from home more often, there are wider gender gaps whereby women are more likely than men to juggle dual-medium work-family digital communication. Moreover, in countries where people use the internet more intensely, women are more likely than men to specialize in family-only and juggle dual-high work-family digital communication. These results suggest that as digital literacy, working from home, and internet use intensity increase further in society, women may disproportionately take on family-related digital communication and also suffer from a “digital double burden” in work-family life. The findings call attention to new forms of gender inequality in the division of labor in the digital era.