Abstract

In light of recent developments that have occurred in the domestic sector in Europe and the debate on the externalisation of domestic and care activities, this article explores the impact of the gender regime on paid domestic work. The gender regime is defined here as the combination of two dimensions: gender equality outcomes and the ‘gender contract’. The aim is to investigate whether the gender regime can contribute to explaining cross-national similarities and differences, in terms of the size of the domestic sector, its workforce composition—with a focus on the proportion of women and migrants—and its working conditions. The article shows the results of quantitative analyses conducted at the European level, which include the construction of a typology of gender regimes, based on selected indicators, and a descriptive comparative analysis of the domestic sector at national level, based on data from the 2015 European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS). The findings suggest that the use of this typology of gender regimes can be a useful tool to explain cross-European differences in the domestic sector, but only regarding the size of the sector and the feminisation of the workforce. Concerning the proportion of migrants and working conditions in the domestic sector, no clear pattern emerges that can explain cross-national differences based on this typology.