Equality in a couple, in practice

Opinion surveys conducted over several decades record massive support for the principle of an equal sharing of domestic and parental tasks. That support does not weaken by age, background or sex of the respondents.

Time-use surveys, which measure what people do rather than what they say they want, record a distribution that remains clearly unbalanced. The gap has narrowed since the 1980s; it has not disappeared.

The explanation by bad faith is convenient and insufficient. It does not explain why the gap widens at identifiable moments, notably the arrival of a child, in couples that were previously balanced.

The available work points to more prosaic mechanisms. The longer leave is taken by whoever has the lower income, which installs a competence and an availability. The competence acquired then justifies their continuing, and the organisation sets without any decision having been taken.

The same mechanism operates on a larger scale. When a transfer, a heavier workload or a demanding training course comes up, the couple decides according to the higher income, which looks rational at household level.

A trade-off that is rational at moment t produces a cumulative gap: the one whose career was favoured sees their income grow, which makes the same trade-off even more rational next time. No single step is absurd, and the result after fifteen years resembles nothing anyone chose.

Article 214 of the French Civil Code requires spouses to contribute to the expenses of the marriage in proportion to their means, which is not a half-and-half split: whoever earns more contributes more, and work in the home is a contribution.

The law also provides correctives at the exit. The compensatory allowance, at article 271, takes account of the consequences of professional choices made during the shared life for the raising of the children. That is explicit recognition that these trade-offs produce a lasting disparity.

Discussing the principle serves no purpose, since agreement is already there. What is usefully discussed are the specific decisions that produce the gap: who takes the leave, who turns down the transfer, who reduces their working hours.

These decisions have the advantage of being dated and identifiable, and therefore examinable. They have the drawback of being taken in a hurry, at the moment when the couple has the least capacity to measure their effects fifteen years out.