Women's Domestic Burden and Gendered Fertility Intentions in Italy: The Role of Parity and Child's Sex

In Italy, the unequal distribution of household chores persists, disproportionately affecting women and potentially discouraging fertility intentions. This study explores the relationship between women’s domestic burden and reproductive intentions, and how this relationship varies between men and women, depending on the parity achieved and the sex of the child (or children) they already had. The paper relies on data from 2016 ISTAT Survey on Families and Social Subjects. The results find this association only for women (and not for men), and particularly for those working and residing in the Centre-North. Interestingly, unlike previous findings, as the childless women’s domestic burden grows, it correlates negatively with their intention to enter motherhood. For mothers, the correlation is somewhat reversed: notably, among mothers with one child, there’s a discernible trend where fertility intentions positively align with increasing household burdens, driven by mothers of one daughter. This suggests a potential preference among traditional mothers of a daughter for having another child, while the more egalitarian, i.e., less burdened ones, seem content with the current family size after having a daughter.