Flexible work and housework division in dual-earner couples in the UK: The role of relative bargaining power

Although flexible work arrangements (FWAs) are widely viewed as tools for reconciling work and family life and promoting gender equality in dual-earner households, they may instead reinforce traditional gender roles in domestic labor. Existing research often attributes men's limited domestic response to flexibility to the male breadwinner model and focuses on the moderating role of individual characteristics, thereby overlooking relational power dynamics that shape domestic labor allocation. Therefore, a dyadic perspective that explicitly accounts for couples' relative bargaining power measured by differences in income and occupational class is essential for clarifying when FWAs reinforce inequality and when they facilitate redistribution. Drawing on nationally representative panel data from the UK (2010-2024) and applying two-way fixed-effects models, this study shows that wives' use of FWAs is consistently associated with their higher share of housework, while husbands' use of FWAs is associated with wives' lower share of housework only when husbands hold lower bargaining power than their partners. Further analyses reveal heterogeneity across types of FWAs: reduced hours and remote work produce stronger redistributive effects toward husbands than flexi-time. The findings refine time availability and doing gender theories by showing that flexibility is conditional rather than inherently equalizing, and they underscore the importance of relative resources in shaping domestic labor outcomes.