as for sweden norway and denmark they boast the narrowest gaps in working hours within couples below ten hours per week eastern european countries also tend to have below average withincouple gaps nor do mothers necessarily step up their paid work to offset reductions in their partners hours if the father does not work the mother still works only some hours per week on average which may in part be related to assortative mating that brings together partners with the same socioeconomic background as in university and college students data refer to total hours worked in all jobs except for chile where only hours worked in the main job are considered