Gender division of housework during the COVID-19 pandemic: Temporary shocks or durable change?

There are only a limited number of studies comparing housework among couples and individuals in different marital statuses, and the focus of attention has tended to be on married compared to cohabiting couples. This article focuses on differences between couples where one or more partner is remarried or recohabiting and those where both partners are in their first married or cohabiting relationships, using nationally representative survey data from Britain. It is shown in multivariate analysis that women in their second-plus partnerships contribute less in terms of their proportion of total housework time than women in their first partnerships. However, there is no effect for the man's number of previous partnerships or for current marital/cohabiting status. It is argued that the significant issue is interaction and negotiation with a subsequent partner in the light of experience gained from the breakdown of one or more previous married/cohabiting relationships.

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Social Comparisons and Satisfaction with the Division of Housework

Journal of Family Issues ◽

10.1177/0192513x03255323 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 24 (7) ◽

pp. 843-866 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

Amy J. Himsel ◽

Wendy A. Goldberg

Keyword(s):

Social Comparisons ◽

Division Of Housework

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Doing Gender with Class: Gender Division of Unpaid Work in Russian Middle-Class Dual Earner Heterosexual Households

Journal of Family Issues ◽

10.1177/0192513x211042846 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 0192513X2110428

Author(s):

Daria Ukhova

Keyword(s):

Middle Class ◽

Unpaid Work ◽

Class I ◽

Doing Gender ◽

Heterosexual Couples ◽

Masculinity And Femininity ◽

Dual Earner ◽

Division Of Housework ◽

Depth Interviews ◽

Division Of Work

This article is concerned with examining the relation between gender division of unpaid work and class. Drawing on in-depth interviews with middle-class dual earner heterosexual couples conducted in Russia, I show how the gender division of housework and care could be shaped by processes of accountability not only to sex category (“doing gender”) but also to class category (“doing class”). I discuss how my interviewees perceived various gender contracts that have evolved in post-socialist Russia as profoundly classed. I further show how their resulting understandings of middle-class (in)appropriate ways of doing masculinity and femininity influenced the division of work in their families. Men were not only accountable as breadwinners but also as carers; while women, in addition to their caring roles, were accountable for their career and sex appeal. In several couples, this double gender and class accountability underpinned their comparatively more equal—although not necessarily more egalitarian—gender division of housework and care.

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Division of housework and his and her view of housework fairness: A typology of Swedish couples

Demographic Research ◽

10.4054/demres.2017.36.16 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 36 ◽

pp. 501-524 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Eva Bernhardt ◽

Maria Brandén ◽

Leah Ruppanner

Keyword(s):

Division Of Housework

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Division of Housework, Communication, and Couples’ Relationship Satisfaction

Socius Sociological Research for a Dynamic World ◽

10.1177/2378023120924805 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

pp. 237802312092480

Author(s):

Daniel L. Carlson ◽

Amanda J. Miller ◽

Stephanie Rudd

Keyword(s):

Relationship Satisfaction ◽

Instrumental Variable ◽

Important Predictor ◽

Male Partners ◽

Communication Quality ◽

Female Partners ◽

Division Of Housework ◽

Using Data

The gendered division of housework is an important predictor of relationship satisfaction, but the mechanisms linking these variables remain poorly understood. Using data on N = 487 couples from the 2006 Marital and Relationship Survey, the authors examine the association of heterosexual partners’ communication quality with the division of housework and the role of partners’ communication quality in the association between the division of housework and relationship satisfaction. Results from instrumental variable models and Actor-Partner Interdependence Models indicate that the quality of women’s communication with their male partners predicts how couples divide housework. The quality of men’s communication with their female partners, however, appears to be an outcome of domestic arrangements. Men’s communication quality mediates the association between the division of housework and women’ relationship satisfaction, while women’s communication quality confounds the association for men.

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The gender division of housework after the first child: a comparison among Bulgaria, France and the Netherlands

Community Work & Family ◽

10.1080/13668803.2018.1528969 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 21 (5) ◽

pp. 519-540 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Cristina Solera ◽

Letizia Mencarini

Keyword(s):

The Netherlands ◽

First Child ◽

Division Of Housework

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Empowered or Entangled: Agency and Choice in Women’s Employment in India

South Asian Survey ◽

10.1177/0971523120947282 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 27 (2) ◽

pp. 98-116

Author(s):

Neetha N.

Keyword(s):

Women Workers ◽

Legal Protection ◽

Women's Employment ◽

Economic Policies ◽

Women’S Employment ◽

Multiple Dimensions ◽

Division Of Housework ◽

History Of ◽

Gender Based ◽

Self Help Groups

In India, formation of NGO-aided self-help groups (SHGs) for production was seen as an important step to lift women out of economic marginalisation and, thus, for women’s empowerment. With changes in economic policies, challenges of wage employment for women were also assumed to have been addressed. In this context, this article, drawing from the history of empowerment discourse and its obsession with the economic aspect, examines women’s employment and its multiple dimensions The analysis provides insights into the gender-based inequalities in the labour market which are evident in the concentration of women workers in precariat, feminised jobs either under the control of the family or without any recognition or legal protection. The prevalence of regressive gendered ideologies in employment and in the division of housework raises critical questions about the understanding of the two critical pillars of empowerment, namely, choice and agency.

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