How Couples Manage the Household

Abstract

Despite many studies on the gendered division of housework, there is little research on how couples divide the work of household management. Relative resource theories of household bargaining inform analyses of who does the housework, but their applicability to household management is unclear, if only because management responsibility may be viewed as unwanted drudgery or as coveted control over family and household. Building on theories of power and exchange, this article examines the relation of relative resources and management responsibility and asks whether the partner who does more housework also does more management. According to 2002 International Social Survey Program data for 31 countries, three fourths of married persons report joint, rather than individual, decision making on children’s upbringing, weekend activities, and major purchases. Supporting a gendered relative resource hypothesis, women, and not men, are more likely to take sole charge of household decision making when their income is higher than their partner’s.