Historically, the division of labour within the household has been characterized by women allocating more time to domestic labour and men allocating more time to market labour. Although pressure for gender equality in both domestic and market labour is rising, it is unclear how the division of labour within the household relates to life satisfaction. Using panel data from the Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (2002–2021) and couple-fixed effects models we estimate, by gender, the relationship between own and partner’s time spent on various household responsibilities and life satisfaction using three different measures of time use for four household responsibilities. Household responsibilities are divided into routine chores, taking care of own children, outdoor tasks, and paid work. Our main findings include that household responsibilities that significantly relate to life satisfaction differ by gender. However, outdoor tasks (maintenance and gardening) positively relate to the life satisfaction of both men and women. We further find that women’s life satisfaction is more sensitive to comparisons to others, both within and outside the home, than men’s life satisfaction. The results also suggest that men experience increased life satisfaction if they spend more time on household responsibilities traditionally performed by women and less time on paid work. Conversely, women's life satisfaction does not increase with greater spousal contribution to these tasks but does increase when they themselves spend less time on paid work.

从历史上看，家庭内部分工的特点是女性将更多时间分配给家务劳动，男性将更多时间分配给市场劳动。尽管家庭和市场劳动力中性别平等的压力都在上升，但家庭内部的劳动分工与生活满意度之间的关系尚不清楚。使用澳大利亚家庭、收入和劳动力动态调查（2002-2021）的面板数据和夫妻固定效应模型，我们使用三种不同的方法，按性别估计自己和伴侣花在各种家庭责任上的时间与生活满意度之间的关系。四项家庭责任的时间利用措施。家庭责任分为日常家务、照顾自己的孩子、户外任务和有偿工作。我们的主要发现包括，与生活满意度显着相关的家庭责任因性别而异。然而，户外任务（维护和园艺）与男性和女性的生活满意度呈正相关。我们进一步发现，与男性的生活满意度相比，女性的生活满意度对家庭内外的其他人的比较更加敏感。研究结果还表明，如果男性花更多的时间在传统上由女性承担的家庭责任上，而花更少的时间在有偿工作上，他们的生活满意度就会提高。相反，女性的生活满意度不会随着配偶对这些任务的贡献增加而增加，但当她们自己花在有偿工作上的时间减少时，生活满意度就会增加。