Time Use,Exploitation, and the Dual‐Career Household: Competing Perspectives

This article evaluates Laibman's reformulation of Marxian exploitation theory, and compares it to two preference‐based analyses of household time use (advanced by Becker and Hakim). Using a quantitative Marxist approach, and the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), we show profound dissatisfaction with working hours for members of dual‐career households, and inequality, by gender, vis‐à‐vis pure consumption time. The results support exploitation‐based theories of the household, and cast doubt on such preference‐based theories of time use.