Children, Kitchen, Church: Does Ethnicity Matter

Attitudes towards gender roles are known determinants of female labor supply. Thispaper examines the strength of those attitudes using time diaries on childcare, foodmanagement and religious activities provided by the British Time Use Survey. Given thelow labor force participation of females from ethnic minorities, the role of ethnicity informing those attitudes and influencing time spent for “traditional” activities is ofparticular interest. The paper finds that white females in the UK have a higher probabilityto participate in the labor force than non-white females. Non-white females spend moretime for food management and religious activities than white females, while there are noethnic differences for time spent on childcare. Hence, cultural differences acrossethnicities are significant, and will affect work behavior.