Shaping gender disparity in childcare between dual-earner parents in urban China: An exploratory study of influencing factors

Gender disparity in parenting is prominent in contemporary heterosexual families. However, investigations into multi-dimensional factors shaping the disparity in China are limited, though Chinese care arrangements and practices are increasingly influential worldwide with the process of globalization. Therefore, this research uses multi-source data from the 2012 Chinese General Social Survey and the 2014–2015 China Education Panel Survey for quantitative analysis, to explore what drives urban dual-earner parents to share childcare or not. Specifically, the disparity is captured via both parents' general intentions to share paid job and unpaid care responsibilities, and concrete paternal relative time contributions to different types of child-rearing. Two major conclusions are drawn from descriptive statistics and linear regressions. Firstly, there are gendered differences in factors that shape parenting (in)equality. Secondly, there are both similarities and differences in factors of gender (in)equality among different caregiving activities. The results implicate that future childcare and family policies need to be directed towards both genders in diverse domains and be attentive to both quantitative and qualitative inequality. •Multi-source data reveal quantitative and qualitative gender inequality in childcare.•Factors shaping men's and women's intentions to share paid job and unpaid care responsibilities are different.•Factors shaping gender disparity in different caregiving activities display both homogeneity and heterogeneity.