Gender Ideologies, Relative Resources, and the Division of Housework in Intimate Relationships: A Test of Hyman Rodman's Theory of Resources in Cultural Context

Abstract

Based on data from the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), the theory of resources in cultural context proposed by Hyman Rodman (1967, 1970) is tested by analyzing the impact of spouses' relative resources on the division of housework in egalitarian, transitional, and traditional cultural contexts. It is found that the relative resources of the spouses are effective not only in transitional cultural contexts, but that they actually have a greater impact on the division of housework in transitional contexts than in egalitarian or traditional contexts. In accordance with Rodman's theory, this article shows that the division of housework between spouses is not easily explained by either relative resources or gender ideologies, and interaction effects are found to be significant.