Abstract
This study examines the moderational role played by the feeling of mattering to the partner in the relationship between gender ideology and perceived fairness using a sample of 141 Canadian mothers with at least one child between the ages of two to five years old. Results support the moderator model and suggest that the emotional rewards mothers receive from their romantic partner influence the way they use gender ideology to evaluate the fairness of the division of family labor in their household. The results show that egalitarian gender ideology is associated with a greater sense of unfairness only when women feel that their partner demonstrates a low level of appreciation toward them. The findings are discussed in terms of the distributive justice theory.
Highlights
Important changes relating to gender roles have occurred over the last few decades
Preliminary Analyses Examination of the descriptive statistics for the sample showed that, globally, the women in the current study reported relatively egalitarian gender ideology, high sense of mattering to their romantic partner, and a slight sense of perceived unfairness of the division of household labor
Moderating Role of Mattering Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were calculated to examine the extent to which mattering moderated the association between gender ideology and each outcome measure of perceived fairness of the division of household labor, after controlling for demographic characteristics, number of hours of employment and number of hours spent completing household tasks per week
Summary
Important changes relating to gender roles have occurred over the last few decades. Research in social psychology documents that women and men have moved toward a greater acceptance of husbands’ and wives’ shared participation in paid and unpaid work (Bolzendahl & Myers, 2004). Women have somewhat reduced the amount of time spent on household tasks and men have increased their involvement (Bianchi, Milkie, Sayer, & Robinson, 2000; Hook, 2010). Despite this convergence, researchers have clearly documented that women continue to shoulder primary responsibility for the vast majority of unpaid labor to satisfy the needs of family members or to maintain the home (see Lachance-Grzela & Bouchard, 2010 for a review). Cross national studies indicate that, even in the most egalitarian countries, women tend to do more housework than men (Cooke & Baxter, 2010; Geist & Cohen, 2011; Hook, 2010; Knudsen & Waerness, 2008)
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