What and How are we Measuring When we Research Gendered Divisions of Domestic Labor? Remaking the Household Portrait Method into a Care/Work Portrait

Abstract

The porous and shifting boundaries within and between care and work concepts, and practices and their related measurement complexities call for innovative conceptual and methodological approaches to research on work and care. This article details how we reconfigured the Household Portrait – a qualitative, participatory, visual, creative method that engages couples in mapping and discussing their household and care tasks and responsibilities – into a Care/Work Portrait. Informed by conceptual shifts in care theories, the Care/Work Portrait offers theoretical and methodological advantages for studying gendered divisions and relations of household work and care. It attends to unpaid care work/paid work/paid care work intra-connections, moves outside the household to include community-based work, deepens distinctions between tasks and responsibilities, and considers wider forms and contexts of care. This method goes beyond who does what tallies to bring forth relational, temporal, spatial stories about people’s complex care/work configurations and the specific contexts, constraints, supports, and structuring conditions of their lives.