Bargaining Or Belonging? : Analyzing Gendered Household Time Use Among Turkish Couples

This thesis investigates the tension between economic bargaining power and thesociological pressure of “doing gender” by examining the division of time use withinhouseholds in Türkiye. Drawing on data from the 2014–2015 Turkey Time UseSurvey, the study adopts a two-stage approach that combines econometric analysiswith a theoretical model. The empirical findings indicate that an increase in women’srelative income is associated with a reduction in their share of housework, in linewith bargaining theory. However, this effect is substantially weakened among dualearnercouples. The theoretical model further demonstrates how deeply ingrainedpreferences, such as aversion to housework shaped by gender norms, can constrainthe outcomes of economic bargaining. Overall, the findings suggest that while bothbargaining and belonging influence how couples allocate their time, gender normsoften set the limits on the power of economic negotiation.