Gender equality and gender differences in household work and parenting

Abstract

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 configurations 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.