Impact of occupational pairing on women’s fertility plans: roles of domestic burden and housework satisfaction

This article examines how the division of housework mediates the relationship between intra-couple socio-economic differences and wives’ fertility intentions.Both objective and subjective aspects of housework equality are considered. Using data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this study employs generalized structural equation modeling (GSEM) to analyze multiple mediation pathways linking occupational assortative mating to fertility intentions. The results show that mating patterns influence household labor dynamics, with women who “marry up” bearing a heavier housework load. The paradox of contented wives who undertake most housework suggests that (in)equality does not necessarily correlate with (dis)satisfaction. Multiple mediation analysis reveals that both the actual division of housework and wives’ perceived satisfaction with this suppress the direct relationship between occupational assortative mating and wives’ fertility intentions. These two mediators function as multiple suppressors in heterogamous marriages. In non-core middle-class and working-class homogamy, only the suppression effect of wives’ relative housework burden is significant.