Sample Characteristics and Initial Description

Abstract

This chapter includes a brief discussion of the sample of 335 households, as well as a first glimpse of the measures of household labor and market time. The short discussion of some selected characteristics of the sample gives a broad overview of the households under study and provides some basis from which to later judge the external validity of the findings. One could argue that simply because the data were collected in 1976, the patterns that emerged (particularly for the division of household labor) depart from those that might be found today. Those who believe that the social relations of the household have been radically transformed since the 1970s will find the descriptive statistics presented in this chapter useful for comparison with future studies of the division of household labor.