The Sexual Division of Labor: Evidence from Childhood

Abstract

This research reports the childhood antecedents of the sexual division of labor, analyzing the family chores and paid employment of 669 boys and girls aged 2-17. Data from a statewide random sample of parents show that sex typing begins very early in roles and that, by the time children reach adolescence, sharp differences exist between boys' work and girls' work. Multiple classification analysis indicates that family background characteristics and family structure have relatively little impact compared to sex and age of child as determinants of sex typing. Both at home and in the marketplace men and women do different kinds of work: they have different working conditions, rewards, hours, and tasks. While some of these may be ascribed to external factors, others may be attributed to learned differences in the attitudes and aspirations of men and women-the fact that a significant proportion of women would rather do the laundry than mow the lawn, rather be a teacher than an engineer, rather type than do construction (Marini). The processes through which these differences are leamed have been the subject of a burgeoning literature on sex-role socialization. While much of this literature indirectly bears on the maintenance of a sexual division of labor, there has been little research on direct childhood socialization into sex-typed roles. Yet children do work, both at home and in paid employment outside the home. What are the socialization implications of these childhood experiences? We seek to provide leads to the mechanisms through which the sexual division of labor is passed from one generation to the next by examining the differentials in experience of boys and girls.