This contribution analyzes how men  and  women in France,  Italy, Sweden, and the  United  States  use  their  time  over  the  life cycle and  the  extent  to  which societal  and  institutional contexts  influence the  gender division  of labor.  Inorder  to test the hypothesis that contextual factors play a crucial role in shaping time allocation,  this study considers countries  that diverge considerably  in terms of  welfare  state  regime,  employment and  paid  working  time  systems, familypolicies, and social norms. Using national  time-use surveys for the late 1990s andearly 2000s and  regression  techniques, the  study not  only finds  large  gender discrepancies in time use in each country at all stages of life but also determinesthat   institutional  contexts,   in  particular  the   design  of  family  policies  and employment regimes, do shape gender roles in different ways, and that Sweden displays the  lowest gender gap in time allocation  across the  life course.