Distribution Of Household Labor Research Articles

GENDER AND HOUSEWORK IN THE POSTRETIREMENT CONTEXT

Abstract In recent years, social scientists have noted an uptick in “unretirement” of older adults as a large number of retirees have reentered the labor force. Not only do older Americans’ labor-force reentry have implications for our economy as a whole, this also raises important questions regarding the social and interpersonal relationships within households. Specifically, women, compared to men, might be disproportionately subject to work-family conflicts, due to the gendered expectation that women take primary responsibility for household labor. In this study, we examine 758 American couples aged 65 and above from the 2005-2019 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) core survey and the supplemental Consumption and Activities Mail Survey. We examine whether and to what extent couple’s retirement and re-entry into the labor force correspond with changes in the distribution of household labor. Specifically, we expect that while both men and women shift their household labor contributions in accordance to changes in their formal work statuses, changes in men’s contributions are attenuated relative to women’s. The results show that while both male and female retirees spend more time housework when their spouses work, women tend to perform more housework when they re-enter the labor force whereas men’s contributions decline significantly upon their re-entry. These patterns are increasingly evident from the analysis focused on routine tasks, typically done by women. These results highlight how gender ideological scripts can frame relational contributions and expectations as well as their persistence despite shifts in economic contributions to the household.

The effect of spouses' relative education on household time allocation

AbstractDoes spouses' relative education explain their household's distribution of labor? This paper analyzes the effect of spouses' education on time allocated to housework and paid work. To address endogeneity concerns, I exploit changes in spouses' relative education due to remarriage to identify its effects on their time allocation. I find that when a husband marries a wife with a higher relative education than their previous spouse, his share of time on housework increases while his share of time on paid work decreases. In contrast, I find nonsignificant results when a wife remarries a more educated husband than her previous one. I also find that changes in the spouse's education reduce the probability of a spouse staying at home. These findings show that relative human capital plays a role in household labor distribution and motivates a more gender‐neutral division of labor within households due to a more evenly distributed time allocation.

The Impact of Household Labor Distribution on Domestic Conflicts During Covid-19 Confinement Orders

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns that started in March 2020 have sparked an increase in domestic labor in many families across the globe. This study focuses on gender differences in the distribution of domestic housework and childcare, as well as how they have impacted couples’ conflicts during confinement, in the context of Spain and Italy. It employs a sequential mixed-methods approach in which a quantitative survey was followed by qualitative in-depth interviews. The results of the quantitative study (N = 447) showed that, for women, total household labor performed during confinement led to the perception of an unequal household distribution, which impacted couples’ conflicts. In-depth interviews with participants from both countries confirmed the quantitative findings and allowed a nuanced understanding of how conflict negotiations evolved during the confinement. The results provide a comprehensive view of how the pandemic may have worsened women’s situation in the household.

Distribution of Household Labor Between Mothers and Fathers in Rural and Urban Malaysia

This study examined whether the distribution of household labor including childcare in Malay families varied as a function of the gender of parents and their rural-urban residence. Using a convenience-sampling approach, we interviewed mothers and fathers from 50 rural and 50 urban intact Malay families in peninsular Malaysia. We employed the tenets of the bioecological systems theory to interpret the findings. Multivariate analysis of variance revealed that mothers spent more time doing housework, laundry, childcare, and preparing meals than fathers did and fathers spent more time in maintenance and shopping for food than mothers did in both rural and urban families. Whereas urban fathers spent more time in childcare and shopping for food than their rural counterparts did, mothers and fathers in urban families equally participated in keeping track of expenses. The discrepancy between mothers’ and fathers’ time engagement in childcare was less in urban families than it was in rural families. Mothers were more engaged in traditional areas of household labor than fathers and compared to rural fathers, urban fathers spent more time in most household tasks including childcare. In view of rapid urbanization and multiethnic social context, the current findings are important because they highlight the contemporary patterns of parental engagement in household labor including childcare in understudied Malay families.

Farmland Rental Participation, Agricultural Productivity, and Household Income: Evidence from Rural China

The rural land rental market is playing an increasingly important role in the agricultural transformation period for developing countries, including China, where rural farmland rental is highly context-specific with the implementation of the collective-owned rural land system; thus, in turn, the access to farmland rental markets for rural households has profoundly influenced their livelihood strategies and income earnings. This paper investigates the income impact differences caused by rural households’ farmland rental participation activities and explores such impact mechanisms by further evaluating the income impacts caused by rental area and household agricultural productivity. Data from the Chinese national household survey were used for estimating the empirical models. Our results show that farmland renting has positively affected households’ on-farm and total income, but there is no significant effect upon off-farm income. According to income differences across quantiles, we find households with high on-farm income are more sensitive about enlarging their farm size by renting farmland, and households with middle and upper-middle off-income may benefit more from renting out their farmland. Furthermore, the joint effects of renting area and household agricultural productivity on lessee households’ farm income is significantly positive. For lessor households, our results indicate that renting out farmland did not improve their off-farm and total income as it may have a limited effect on farm household labor distribution. Our findings suggest that engaging in farmland rental activity can enhance farming productivity efficiency and poverty alleviation among rural households. Under the collective-owned rural land system, it is urgent and necessary to initiate and design incentive policies to encourage highly efficient large farms to expand the farm size and provide smallholders with equal opportunities to engage in farmland rental activities.

COVID-19 and Color-Blind Racism

Same-sex parents, how police harassment affects adolescent mental health, and unequal distribution of household labor. New research from the journals.

Chinese and South Korean Families' Conceptualizations of a Fair Household Labor Distribution

The present study set out to investigate how Chinese and South Korean families conceptualize fairness and a fair division of household labor. Previous cross-cultural research has found that a good portion of women and men find the gendered division of household labor fair. In response, scholars have attempted to discover what factors lead to a greater likelihood of reporting a gendered division fair. However, the majority of the scholarship on fairness perceptions has been limited to survey methods, in which fairness is not defined, and the individual's reasons for their fairness perception is not investigated. This study employed thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with the members of 12 Chinese (N=39) and 12 Korean (N=40) families. No participation in household labor was considered across families to be unfair. On the other hand, the majority of participants justified an unequal division to be fair based on gendered applications of differences in time-availability and levels of tiredness, in which the amount of housework that each member should do was left unspecified. Many adult participants believed that fairness should not apply to the family context. Instead, most participants argued that household labor should be divided based on emotional satisfaction, maintained through mechanisms of understanding and agreement. Future studies on fairness perceptions should clearly define what they mean by "fairness," and the gendering of gender-neutral appearing justifications such as time-availability should be further investigated.

Time Use and Household Division of Labor in India—Within‐Gender Dynamics

AbstractHousehold allocation of labor is an important area of scholarship in developing countries where women's well‐being is affected by the heavy load of unpaid work within the household. This study extends nuclear household‐centric research on labor allocation by drawing attention to bargaining between female in‐laws in multigenerational households in India. This paper empirically tests two competing theories based on the impact of a daughter‐in‐law's education on household division of labor in multigenerational households. First is Caldwell's thesis that contends that increasing education would increase the bargaining power of daughter‐in‐law, thereby tilting the distribution of household labor in her favor, and the second is patriarchal bargain theory that makes an opposite claim. Both these theories are tested using time‐use data, and the latter is found to have higher explanatory power. Further layers are added to the analysis by tracing the effects of caste, class, and religion. Findings show that these mediate and determine the division of housework and bargaining outcomes between female in‐laws. This study emphasizes the need for an intersectional understanding of gender norms that are inextricably tied to factors such as religion, caste, class, and family structure. Findings also underline the need to study within‐gender dynamics systematically.

Chinese and South Korean children's moral reasoning regarding the fairness of a gendered household labor distribution.

This study explored age-related changes in Chinese and Korean children's fairness judgments and reasoning regarding the gendered division of household labor. The majority of previous research on this issue has focused on adults' experiences and has been conducted in Western countries. Interviews were conducted with 133 children, 65 Chinese and 68 South Korean, ages 9-11 (N = 48), 12-14 (N = 43), and 16-18 (N = 42). Despite country differences in women's involvement in the workforce, in both countries women do most of the housework. Most participants across ages evaluated a hypothetical scenario in which the mother did most of the work as unfair and endorsed a hypothetical scenario in which housework was divided evenly as fair. Developmental effects were found with younger children in both countries employing more equality justifications and adolescents providing more social convention justifications. In both countries, children described their mother as doing most of the housework and, in contrast with their judgments about hypothetical situations, were evenly divided overall in their evaluations of whether this unequal distribution in their actual families was fair. Korean children were more likely to view their family's division as unfair than Chinese children and were more likely to employ equality justifications in support of those judgments. Unexpectedly, across countries moral reasoning in the form of expectations of equity rather than gender stereotyping was employed to justify an unequal division of labor. This study's findings suggest the value of investigating children's fairness judgments and moral reasoning regarding both hypothetical and actual situations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

The gender division of labor and second births: Labor market institutions and fertility in Japan

1. IntroductionVery low fertility rates in Southern Europe, Eastern Europe, and East Asia have been a source of great interest for demographers in recent years (Kohler, Billari, and Ortega 2002; Lesthaeghe 2010). Among the theories proposed to explain the emergence of what is termed 'lowest-low' fertility (total fertility rates of 1.3 or lower), theories emphasizing the unevenness of gender-role change have increasingly occupied center stage. Central among these is McDonald's gender equity framework, with its focus on the slow pace of change in men's and women's household roles compared to their increasingly equal participation in the public sphere, especially the labor market (McDonald 2000). Recent work has suggested that increases in gender equality are likely to help societies currently experiencing low fertility to move towards an equilibrium characterized by near-replacement fertility rates (Esping-Andersen and Billari 2015; Goldscheider, Bernhardt, and Lappegard 2015).This paper seeks to make both a theoretical and an empirical contribution to the analysis of how gender equality is related to fertility. First, we bring the role of labor market institutions into the analysis, theorizing the importance of considering how employment norms and work culture affect men's ability to participate in housework. In doing so we establish the connection not only between women's roles in the public and private spheres but also between men's roles in these two spheres. Second, we bring East Asia more fully into the literature on low fertility, which has been dominated by research on Europe. We utilize individual-level panel data from Japan, one of the countries that has had persistently low fertility over the past two decades, despite government policy efforts to raise the birth rate. We employ an analysis strategy that models husband's contribution to household labor in the context of Japanese labor market institutions and then models the effect of husband's household work on the transition to second birth. In demonstrating how gender-role specialization in Japanese marriages is connected to the broader labor market context, we argue that Japanese labor market structure and workplace norms have a negative impact on Japan's fertility rate.2. The household division of labor and fertility2.1 Empirical studiesFollowing McDonald's gender equity perspective and the expectation that a highly gendered household division of labor in postindustrial societies is likely to depress fertility, in recent years a number of empirical studies have endeavored to test this relationship. At the macro level, Feyrer, Sacerdote, and Stern (2008) find a positive relationship in OECD countries between the average household work share of husbands and the average number of births.3 A number of studies using micro-level data find that increased involvement of fathers in childcare and housework increases the likelihood of a second birth. For instance, Olah (2003) compares Sweden, which has had a longstanding dual-earner/dual-carer family model, with Hungary, a country that has emphasized paid work for men and women but a more traditional division of labor at home. She finds that fathers' involvement in household work increases the probability of second birth in both countries.4 Using US data, Torr and Short (2004) find a Ushaped relationship between couples' distribution of household labor and the transition to second birth, with a higher probability of second birth for couples where the wife does most of the housework (the 'traditional' model) as well as for couples where housework is shared relatively equally between spouses.Studies using micro-level data from countries with a more traditional malebreadwinner model have produced somewhat mixed results. In her comparative study of Italy and Spain, Cooke (2009) finds that fathers' share of childcare has no effect on the probability of a second birth in Spain. In Italy, fathers' childcare time has a positive effect but the strength of the effect varies by mothers' employment status. …

Sharing housework can be healthy: cultural and psychological factors influencing men’s involvement in household maintenance

Following gender prescriptions can affect individuals’ quality of life. Research has shown that the unequal distribution of household labor is correlated with low psychological well-being and family conflict. Therefore, negotiations concerning household and family duties within relationships appear to be an important health-related issue. Additionally, research has shown that couples who have more gender-egalitarian arrangements within their households have better health outcomes if the wider society is more gender egalitarian.<br /> In this literature review, we aim to shed light on the relationship of the equal division of housework between women and men with their health and well-being. We also present selected results from the series of studies conducted during our PAR Migration Navigator project, which explores the practices of gender equality within households and their relationship to individual well-being among Polish couples living in Poland, Polish migrant couples living in Norway, and Norwegian couples living in Norway.

Lesbian women and household labor division: A systematic review of scholarly research from 2000 to 2015

ABSTRACTRecent studies have begun to attend to distribution of household labor within same-gender couples compared to heterosexual couples, yet much of the available research with lesbian couples has attempted to superimpose division of household labor frameworks developed with heterosexual couples (e.g., gender role socialization, exchange bargaining theories) to fit the experiences of same-gender couples. Using two academic search databases, the present article provides a systematic review of the available 28 peer-reviewed articles published from 2000–2015 about lesbian partnerships and household labor divisions. Results indicate that lesbian couples engage in a more equal distribution of household labor than heterosexual couples, and that lesbian women often opt to eschew traditional gendered divisions of chores in favor of other factors such as quality of task or ability. The systematic review uncovered notable constraints in the demography of participants (e.g., race, socioeconomic status, geographic location) across studies. Strategies for deepening the depth and breadth of this line of work for future researchers, and implications for relationship satisfaction are also discussed.

ATTITUDES TOWARDS PARENTAL EMPLOYMENT: A RANKING ACROSS EUROPE, AUSTRALIA, AND JAPAN

1.IntroductionFamily attitudes and gender roles are key drivers of changing family patterns (Dommermuth et al. 2015; Frejka 2008; Goldscheider et al. 2015). The attitudes towards maternal employment do not only refer to the family but are also related to gender roles and the distribution of household labor. Research on attitudes towards parental employment and especially the country comparative perspective is very important for better understanding fertility behavior and gender culture. Evidence from panel data indicates that gender role attitudes and family formation are related in a dynamic process, in that gender role attitudes influence family formation and vice versa (Hanappi et al. 2016; Moors 2003). Differences in attitudes towards demographic behavior and values are large across countries (Aassve et al. 2013). The gendered division of paid work and care and individual attitudes towards it are crucial for understanding the gendered nature of welfare states (Haas 2005; Lewis 2002).The political, social and economic contexts as well as the cultures of care shape individual family attitudes. In modern societies there are dominant social norms and attitudes towards family and gender, which are part of an overall cultural system and embedded in the institutional system of a country.Parental employment - especially maternal employment - involves the need of external childcare. From various perspectives the relationship between parental employment and external childcare on the one hand and children's wellbeing on the other hand has been studied (Hsin and Felfe 2014; Ruhm 2004). Results indicate a positive effect of early institutional childcare (kindergarten, qualified day-care mother) on children's cognitive and linguistic development (Loeb et al. 2007; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Early Child Care Research Network 2000; Sylva et al. 2011) their social competencies (Barnes et al. 2009) and no significant association between first-year maternal employment and elevated levels of child behavior problems (Brooks-Gunn et al. 2010). In line, Lombardy and Cooley (2014) conclude that early employment poses no risks on the development of chil- dren's cognitive skills. from families with low and middle income as well as children from families with a migration background benefit the most from the early external childcare and therefore from the early parental employment (Loeb et al. 2007). From an economic perspective, Havnes and Mogstad (2011) report a positive effect of involvement in external childcare on education and labor participation in later life course as well as a lower risk of dependence on social assistance. In addition, the role of familial habitus is shaping children's views of their future employment, as indicated by an intergenerational transmission of non-traditional attitudes from mothers to their children (Johnston et al. 2014). It turned out that daughters are significantly more likely to reach higher school degrees, participate in the labor force, and work more hours if their mothers held non-traditional beliefs. Mothers' attitudes are also significantly associated with sons' partners' (daughter-inlaw) labor supply. This could explain an important part of gender inequalities in economic opportunities.We study attitudes towards the statements A pre-school child suffers if his/her mother works and Children often suffer because their fathers concentrate too much on their work. We adopt the culturalist research perspective as we concentrate on social values and norms in a broad range of post-modern countries (Haas 2005; Pfau-Effinger 1998). The aim of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of cross-country differences in gender roles and family models. By studying not only the attitudes towards combining motherhood and work when children are at preschool-age, but also by addressing the less studied issue of the role of fathers in childrearing, we bring new insights into the perception of parenthood across Europe, Australia and Japan. …

The Second Shift Reflected in the Second Generation

Gender inequality at home continues to constrain gender equality at work. How do the gender disparities in domestic labor that children observe between their parents predict those children’s visions for their future roles? The present research examined how parents’ behaviors and implicit associations concerning domestic roles, over and above their explicit beliefs, predict their children’s future aspirations. Data from 326 children aged 7 to 13 years revealed that mothers’ explicit beliefs about domestic gender roles predicted the beliefs held by their children. In addition, when fathers enacted or espoused a more egalitarian distribution of household labor, their daughters in particular expressed a greater interest in working outside the home and having a less stereotypical occupation. Fathers’ implicit gender-role associations also uniquely predicted daughters’ (but not sons’) occupational preferences. These findings suggest that a more balanced division of household labor between parents might promote greater workforce equality in future generations.

임상간호사의 건강행위, 사회적지지, 행동유형과 자기효능감과의 관련성

본 연구는 임상 간호사의 건강행위, 사회적지지, 행동유형과 자기효능감과 상관관계를 파악하여 간호사의 자기효능감과 사회적 지지 향상을 위한 프로그램개발에 기초 자료를 제공하기 위하여 시도되었다. 대상자는 강원도에 소재하고 있는 병원의 간호사 202명을 대상으로 하였다. 자료수집은 2011년 6월 10일부터 6월 26일 까지의 기간 동안에 구조화된 무기명 자기기입식 설문지를 이용한 설문조사에 의하였다. 연구결과, 간호사의 자기효능감은 학력, 재직기간, 결혼유무, 근무부서, 종교, 밤번횟수, 가사분담, 운동, 스트레스 관리에 따라 통계적으로 유의한 차이가 있었고, 사회적 지지는 근무부서, 종교, 가사분담, 음주, 흡연, 스트레스 관리에 따라 통계적으로 유의한 차이가 있었으나 행동유형은 자기효능감과 사회적 지지에 따라 유의한 차이가 나타나지 않았다. 상관관계에서는, 간호사의 자기효능감은 사회적 지지와 유의한 상관관계가 있었으나, 행동유형과는 상관관계를 나타내지 않았다. This study intends to investigate the health behavior, self-efficacy, behavior pattern and social support among hospital of nurses, to provide the basic data for self-efficacy promoting program and social support promoting program. The self-administered questionnaires were given to 202 nurses employed in hospital during the period from June 10 to June 26, 2011. As a results, the score of level of self-efficacy was statistically significant difference according to educational status, working period, marital state, place of duty, religion, night-duty, distribution of household labor, exercise and stress management. The score of level of social support was statistically significant difference according to place of duty, religion and distribution of household labor, alcohol drinking, smoking, and stress management. But the score of level of behavior pattern was not statistically significant difference according to self-efficacy and social support. In correlation, the score of self-efficacy level correlated positively with social support and not with behavior pattern.

Analyzing the Division of Household Labor within Spanish Families

Do all women experience a labor “double burden”? Are women responsible for domestic tasks in all households? What explains variation in patterns of distribution of household labor across families? In this article, I approach these questions from the perspective of two opposing theoretical approaches: the New Home Economics framework, and the Social Capital or sociological framework. I test the validity of these two frameworks with data from the Spanish Fertility and Family Survey of 1995. The results point towards the validity of the sociological perspective: those families in which the husbands have medium labor status present more egalitarian patterns of household labor distribution. Additionally, the results confirm the importance of attitudinal variables such as religiosity to explain domestic labor division patterns: women with more traditional values experience a more severe double burden.

Gender Dependence and Attitudes toward the Distribution of Household Labor

We use comparative and multilevel methods to examine attitudes toward the distribution of household labor in 32 countries. We test hypotheses derived from Baxter and Kane's (1995) gender dependence theory, which suggests complex relationships between societal-level gender dependence, individual-level gender dependence, and gender attitudes. Country-level data are from the United Nations and survey data are from the International Social Survey Programme's 2002 Family and Changing Gender Roles III module. Our analysis is among the first to combine societal and individual indicators of gender dependence using multilevel modeling and to test for cross-level interactions between societal and individual gender dependence. Results provide mixed support for gender dependence theory and suggest several revisions — especially pertaining to men's attitudes.

Intimacy and autonomy, gender and ageing: Living apart together

To an increasing extent the ‘young old’ in Sweden are actors in the process of the differentiation of family forms. A distinctive contribution is the establishment of lasting intimate relationships that do not include a shared home, that is, an alternative to marriage and unmarried cohabitation usually covered by the concept of Living Apart Together (LAT-relationships). Living Apart Together can offer older divorcees, widows, and widowers a fulfilling intimate relationship but at the same time ensure the individual a significant degree of autonomy. The study shows that this is of particular importance to women, and that older women play a vital role in establishing and upholding LAT-relationships. By preserving her own household a woman may avoid the asymmetrical distribution of household labor and unequal demands of caring for a partner that she may have experienced in a previous marriage.

Doing It Fairly: A Study of Postgender Marriages

Little is known about married couples who share the responsibilities of paid and family work without regard for prescriptions. Fifteen married couples who divide household work and child care equitably and without regard to are interviewed to determine how they arrived at this arrangement and what consequences such a distribution of household labor has on their relationship. Findings suggest that there are four paths to an equitable division of household labor: a dual-career household, a dual-nurturer relationship, a posttraditional relationship, and external forces. An egalitarian arrangement appears to affect both the power and emotional quality of couples' relationships. The concept of itself, with its impliedhierarchy in values, symbols, beliefs and statuses, is cornerstone of the edifice of inequality. Komter, 1989, pp. 213-214 Key Words: division of labor, gender, marriage. In this article, we explore how both behaviors and meanings in heterosexual marriages change when the spouses reject as a basis for organizing marital roles or responsibilities. We work from a feminist theory that defines as a system of stratification based on categorization that is created and recreated daily (Bem, 1993; Ferree, 1990; Ferree & Hess, 1987; Lorber, 1994; Risman & Schwartz, 1989; West & Zimmerman, 1987). Historically, the family is a factory, where the polarization of masculine and feminine is created and displayed (Berk, 1985). Perhaps the best explanation for why women do an inequitable share of household labor is because we have defined such work as part of a woman and doing gender appropriately (West & Zimmerman, 1987). Although is theorized within feminist scholarship as being forged at all levels of social life (Lorber, 1994), it is perhaps most evident in the family and other intimate relationships where is still seen even ideologically as a reasonable and legitimate basis for the distribution of rights, power, privilege, and responsibilities. (See review by Thompson & Walker, 1995; and Komter, 1989.) For example, in families in which there is an inequitable division of family work, wives and husbands often compare their household workloads with those of other wives and husbands, rather than with each other, because gender, rather than partner, is considered the appropriate referent (Thompson, 1991). Much recent research on contemporary families focuses on the division of household labor and child care in American homes. Studies investigating the division of paid work and family work in most families suggest that the of women entering the paid work force in the past decades has not resulted in a consequent shift in the practices of men at home, a fact that Hochschild has termed the stalled revolution (Hochschild, 1989). In the majority of American homes, even when wives spend as many hours in the paid labor force as their husbands, they retain primary responsibility for homemaking and childrearing (Berardo, Shehan, & Leslie, 1987; Berk, 1985; Ferree, 1991; Hiller & Philliber, 1986). The power of in shaping the household division of labor is apparent in these typical families. Gender theorists, particularly Connell (1987) and Lorber (1994), suggest that, although structural conditions systematically support male privilege, human beings not only follow social dictates, but create them. The paradox of gender, according to Lorber, is that in order for feminists to eradicate gender, we must first recognize and highlight its ubiquitousness in all social institutions. One project for feminist social scientists is to locate and make visible the power of in families and occasionally to highlight when that power begins to diminish, to show that is a social institution, and, therefore, social change is possible. The research presented here is a study of heterosexual married couples who have moved beyond hegemonic conceptions of as they organize their daily family life. …

Couples Watching Television: Gender, Power, and the Remote Control

sought to confirm that partners in close relationships (West & Zimmerman, 1987) and exercise power (Komter, 1989) even in their ordinary everyday behavior and specifically in their selection of television programming via a remote control device (RCD). Individuals in 36 couples (86% heterosexual, 14% gay or lesbian) were interviewed. Men in heterosexual couples use and control RCD more than women, and their partners find RCD use more frustrating than they do. Heterosexual women also are less able than men to get their partners to watch a desired show. The results confirm that couples create and strengthen stereotypical notions of gender through exercise of power, even in mundane, joint, leisure activity of watching television. Key Words: close relationships, gender, leisure, power, remote control device, television. Five years ago, my parents bought a second television set because my mother refused to watch television with my father any longer. I can't stand way he flips through channels, she said. Note that my father actually has use of new television, and my mother has been relegated to den with older model. Nevertheless, mother now has her own set, and conflicts about remote control device have been reduced considerably. Several years ago, journalist Ellen Goodman (1993, p. 181) published an essay in which she described RCD as the most reactionary implement currently used to undermine equality in modern marriage. Because family scholars rarely study such mundane, everyday life experience, there is little research available to confirm Goodman's sentiments or to assess prevalence of solutions to television-watching disagreements such as that employed by my parents. RCD use, however, presents a challenging arena in which to examine gender and relationship issues in experience of daily living. Over past 20 years, feminist scholars have shown that ordinary, routine, run-of-the-mill activities that take place inside homes every day bear an uncanny resemblance to social structure. For example, distribution of household labor and of child care is gendered in same way that paid work is gendered: The more boring and less desirable tasks are disproportionately performed by women, and status has a way of reducing men's, but not women's, participation in these tasks. (See Thompson & Walker, 1989, for a review.) Examining television-watching behavior is a way to extend feminist analysis to couples' leisure. Despite fact that television watching is dominant recreational activity in United States today (Robinson, 1990), there is little research on this topic in family studies literature. Indeed, there is little family research on leisure at all (but see Crawford, Geoffrey, & Crouter, 1986; Hill, 1988; Holman & Jacquart, 1988), although scholars often mention that employed wives and mothers have very little of it (e.g., Coverman & Sheley, 1986; Hochschild, 1989; Mederer, 1993). Recently, Firestone and Shelton (1994), using data from 1981 Study of Time Use, confirmed that married women have less overall leisure time than married men. They also demonstrated gender-divergent patterns in connection between paid work and both domestic (in-home) and out-of-home leisure time. Women who are employed have less out-of-home leisure time than men do, but men who are employed have less domestic leisure time than employed women. Specifically, they found that employment hours do not affect amount of leisure time that married women have at home. To explain this surprising finding, Firestone and Shelton speculated that leisure at home appears to be same for employed and nonemployed wives because leisure is compatible with household chores and with child care. In other words, women combine family work with leisure activities. For example, they iron while watching television. …