It's about gender: A critical review of the literature on the domestic division of work

Abstract

AbstractFamily scholars have used several approaches to explain the division of domestic work: economic exchange, time availability, and gender. These are often presented as analytically different and competing perspectives, although the consensus in the literature is that all of them contribute to explaining the division of work. This article presents a critical appraisal of this literature that intends to move research forward in three ways: first, by highlighting how these approaches are empirically and analytically interdependent, and therefore should not be studied separately. Second, by arguing that one of them—the gender perspective—takes analytical precedence. The underlying argument is that both economic factors and time availability are not gender‐neutral and can thus be accounted for using a gender perspective. Finally, the article illustrates how using an integrative approach to gender—Risman's gender as a social structure—can provide a more fruitful way to analyze the gendered division of work.