Determinants of Women's Roles in Home Maintenance

Abstract

Women aged 20 through 59 who owned their homes were surveyed to determine which home maintenance tasks they perform themselves and which home main tenance tasks they would be willing to perform if they knew how. The majority of women were most likely to do interior painting themselves. More than one‐fourth of the women surveyed also were the most likely one in the family to clean the outside of the house, refinish wood surfaces, mow the lawn, caulk cracks, hang wallpaper, or do outside painting. In addition to these tasks, the majority of women indicated that if they knew how they also would be willing to do many other tasks, including skilled tasks such as window repair, minor plumbing re pairs, and installation of new flooring. Discriminant analysis was used to deter mine variables that best predict the characteristics of women most likely to be involved in home maintenance and those most likely to be willing to learn more tasks. The best predictors of female “do‐it‐yourselfers” were found to be percep tion of skill, marital status, age, employment status, and race, with do‐ it‐yourselfers most likely to be younger, unmarried white women who are em ployed fewer hours per week and have a high perception of their skill level. The best predictors of willingness to do home maintenance tasks were skill, value of the dwelling, marital status, household size, age, and household income. Those most willing to learn more tasks were most likely to be younger, unmarried women with families, living in lower‐value housing on low‐to‐moderate incomes, and having a high perception of their skill level.