for example higher bargaining power as proxied by larger age gap positively affects the amount of time that husbands spend on market work and that wives spend on household work it has no effect on time spent by husbands on household work or wives on market work on the other hand the education gap proxy seems to negatively affect the amount of time husbands spend on household and care work positively affect both the wifes and husbands time spent on market work and does not significantly affect the time spent by the wife on household work this suggests that die household division of labour and in particular womens household and care work time may not be subject to negotiation