Critically Examining the Division of Labour in the Household

Synopsis-The article begins from the assumption that the study of housework is usually undertaken to gain an insight into gendered inequalities and the changes that might be occurring in gender relations. It is argued that existing conceptualizations of housework are of limited use for that purpose. Four conceptual problems are outlined-empirical definition; categorization; assumed communality; and ability-and illustrated with examples from published research. These four problems are argued to be symptomatic of two higher order problems-the conceptualization of inequality and of gender. Following a discussion of the limitations of existing housework research, some proposals for improving research on housework are made.

Labour Economics, 2019

This article studies how gender role attitudes are transmitted from parents to their children by examining the intrahousehold division of housework time. The Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS-HSE) is used to analyse the time devoted by parents to housework during their children's late childhood or adolescence and that of the same children once they marry. The results suggest that a greater proportion of housework performed by mothers during childhood is related to a persistence in gender inequality in their children's future families. These gender norms are perpetuated directly to sons through a lower amount of housework performed and indirectly to daughters through the choice of a partner that replicates her father role model. An analysis of the possible transmission mechanisms proposed by the literature suggests a prominent role of the parental role model, according to which children tend to reproduce the situation they experienced during childhood. These findings shed light on the persistence of parental behaviour across generations, underlining the key role of fathers, and contribute to the debate about how gender inequality is transmitted over time.

Women's Studies International Forum, 1995

Synopsis -Drawing on qualitative research with 23 British dual earner couples, this article explores theoretical issues of gender differences and gender equality as they relate specifically to an understanding and analysis of women and men's contributions to household work and parenting. It is argued that the relationship between women's greater contribution to household work and their relative inequality to men in employment and public life -what Dinnerstein (1978) referred to as the relationship between "the rocking of the cradle and the ruling of the world" -remains the chief focus of research and analysis in the subject area of gender divisions of household labour. While recognizing the importance of such a focus, both for feminist research as well as for women outside of academia, I draw attention to one of the costs of such a focus, which has been an inadequate recognition of the various contigurations that gender differences may take within household life. In particular, the article argues that there. are several critical insights from ongoing feminist debates on gender equality and gender difference which could be usefully incorporated into the methodological and theoretical literature on gender divisions of household labour so as to enrich our understanding and analysis of persistent gender differences in household life and labour.

Journal of Family Theory & Review, 2011

In this article, I revisit the Wages for Housework (WfH) perspective and movement in order to recover Marxist-feminist analyses of social reproduction. Social reproduction remains an important site of contestation, especially as women continue to bear the brunt of an increasingly neo-liberalized economy. WfH's nuanced view of wages and housework, I argue, should be reconsidered as a point of departure in responding to new forms of oppression in a reorganized economy. Résumé: Dans cet article, je revisite la perspective et le mouvement « salaire au travail ménager » afin de retrouver les analyses marxistes féministes de la reproduction sociale. La reproduction sociale demeure un champ important de contestation, d'autant que les femmes continuent à faire les frais d'une économie de plus en plus néo-libérale. La vision nuancée du mouvement « salaire au travail ménager » au sujet des salaires et des tâches ménagères, devrait à mon avis être reconsidérée comme point de départ pour répondre aux nouvelles formes d'oppression dans une économie réorganisée.

This article studies 28 dual-income Spanish childless couples who were undoing gender in routine domestic work. We understand

2019

This research is motivated by a desire to better understand contemporary partnerships and households in the UK, specifically examining the gendered division of labour, gender inequalities, and social change within the domestic domain. Thirty years ago, Hochschild’s (1989) influential book, The Second Shift, provided a dominant assessment of the gendered division of labour within the home of dual-earner families. Hochschild (1989) asserted that men refused to share the burden of housework, forcing employed women to come home to a ‘second shift’ of unpaid domestic labour - a significant barrier to their careers. In the thirty years since Hochschild’s book, research has shown that women continue to do the bulk of domestic labour, perpetuating inequalities in both the private and public sphere. Despite this, gendered identities, workforce dynamics, and the social conditions of the home continue to change. As the gendered division of labour remains a salient, yet problematic, sphere of British social life, an anthropological perspective can help to illuminate points of tension that are often treated as simplistic to a casual observer. For instance, why do women continue to do the bulk of domestic labour and perceive it as fair, even though there are objectively unfair distributions of gendered work? In order to explore this, and to bring the discussion up-to-date, this paper will investigate housework and childcare from the view of dual-earner couples in contemporary British society. Rather than simply exploring the distribution of tasks and time, this research will focus on men’s and women’s perceptions of the domestic division of labour and their perceived fairness within the home; revealing insights into the determinants of both men’s and women’s levels of domestic and economic involvement. A thorough anthropological engagement within the home can help to identify men’s and women’s aspirations, expectations, and desires about domestic and paid work, in order to better understand the gendered division of labour and gender inequities that prevail in British culture. The knowledge gained through this research can be applied to address current societal issues, shape the national debate, and to develop and improve family policies and practices on a national level.

Theory and Psychology, 2004

This article evaluates recent developments in research on the domestic division of labour. It focuses on the Distributive Justice Framework developed by Thompson (1991) in an extension of Major’s (1987) work on the psychology of entitlement. This framework states that in order to explain the persistence of gender inequalities in domestic labour, researchers must consider the factors that determine women’s sense of fairness in close relationships. Whilst acknowledging its contribution to the field, the article argues that existing work on the Distributive Justice Framework has misconceived important aspects of the social psychology of distributive justice. By way of contrast, an approach is advanced that is grounded in the analysis of everyday discursive practices in the home — the practices through which couples define their contributions to household labour and negotiate ideological dilemmas about gender, entitlement and fair shares. We argue that investigations of gender inequalities in domestic labour can benefit from the new directions provided by social constructionism, as well as the more complex views of subjectivity, power and social interaction that are now emerging in psychology.

MSc in Sociology - Research Design Assignment, 2021

Research Design Assignment submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Sociology at the University of Oxford. Breen and Cooke’s study (2005) greatly contributes to the analysis of persisting gender segregation, specifically looking at the possible shifts in the division of unpaid, domestic labour on marriage—a subject of research which was previously merely addressed and controlled for, in spite of numerous papers focusing on alterations in paid employment. However, it is not just the article’s research question that stands out as original, but also the authors’ adopted approach to the theme under study; Breen and Cooke unveil the conditions by which gendered division of house duties is expected to change through a game-theoretic model of marriage which, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, is the first sociological application of game theory to family bargaining (Breen & Cooke, 2005, p.44). Moreover, the authors do not solely devote the paper to the development of ‘The marriage game’, but they deepen the research including preliminary empirical tests on data, trying to explain variation over populations with a cross-sectional study. Despite giving full credit to the article’s innovative applications and contribution to the academic field concerning the effects of the incomplete gender revolution, arguably, the paper still presents some theoretical inadequacies in multiple aspects regarding its research methods and design. Grade: 68

She uses qualitative and quantitative methods to study gender and inequality. Her most recent work examines the institution of marriage across cultures and examines how dominant marital beliefs and practices shape women's status and well-being within and outside of marriage. Her research appears in a variety of journals including