Workplace Subordination and Men's Avoidance of Housework

Abstract

Understanding the determinants of men's participation in housework has been the focus of much research in the past two decades. Increasingly, scholars argue that men's reluctance to do family work is because they associate it with “women's work” and thus a threat to their masculinity. The authors extend this idea by considering the link between challenges to men's identities in the workplace and their behavior in the home. Using data collected for the Class Structure and Class Consciousness Survey, it was found that the extent of men's workplace subordination was negatively related to their performance of “feminine” tasks in the home. Moreover, this relationship was stronger in families in which wives' earnings approached those of their husbands'. The theoretical implications of the results are discussed, and a call is made for more longitudinal studies to understand the complex and evolving relationship between work and family.