Domestic Division Of Labour Research Articles

The Rural-Urban Intermarriage and Female Identity Formation in Contemporary China

This article analyzes the marital experiences of rural-urban female migrants in contemporary China through qualitative semi-structured interviews. It argues that these women have gained more autonomy and higher status within their families through intermarriage. Despite these improvements, they continue to face significant prejudices and pressures from family members and society. The empirical research reveals that female migrants often struggle with managing relationships with their elders. Additionally, differences in economic income and the division of domestic labor lead to conflicts over household finances between female migrants and their partners. The study found that female migrants are under multiple pressures from their partners and parents-in-law, often choosing to compromise in domestic conflicts. Overall, the autonomy that female migrants exhibit in intermarriages highlights a significant transformation in their self-determination and self-identification.

Trajectories of US parents’ divisions of domestic labor throughout the COVID-19 pandemic

Trajectories of US parents’ divisions of domestic labor throughout the COVID-19 pandemic

Generational Dissonance or Cultural Persistence? European Immigration and the Intergenerational Transmission of Gender Beliefs

Abstract Contemporary perspectives on gender highlight the multilevel processes that maintain the gender system, from the hegemonic cultural beliefs embedded in state institutions to the gendered interactions that occur in everyday life. This study investigates immigration as a source of diversity and adaptation in the gender system. Using data on immigrant and native adolescents in the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries (CILS4EU), we examine the intergenerational transmission of attitudes about the domestic division of labor. Our results show a strong association between mother’s gender attitudes and child’s gender attitudes among both immigrants and natives, with no significant difference between the two groups. The persistence of beliefs grounded in family culture results in significantly higher levels of gender traditionalism among adolescent children of immigrants as compared to their native peers. These results underscore the centrality of families as a relational context that contributes both to the reproduction of cultural beliefs about gender and the slow pace of shifts in hegemonic gender beliefs in response to social change.

Housework sharing among older couples: explaining the gendered division of domestic labour in older age in South Korea

ABSTRACT Our study investigates the relationship between family models and housework division among older couples. Using the 2019 Korean Time Use Survey, we analysed wives’ share of housework in four family models—dual-earner, traditional (husband-breadwinner), wife-breadwinner, and retired (non-employed) couples—in which at least one partner was aged 65 or above (N = 1,564). Results show that although wives’ housework share varies across the four family models, unequal distribution of housework persists in older age, with wives shouldering over 70 per cent of the total housework regardless of the family model. Wives’ housework share in wife-breadwinner couples was significantly lower than that among dual earners. We also found that economic resources, particularly income, and gender ideology play a limited role in explaining the division of housework among older couples. However, health played a crucial role, with wives and husbands doing more housework when their partners reported poor health.

A Case of Sticky Gender? Persistence and Change in the Division of Household Labor during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Contemporary research finds that gender continues to provide an organizing framework for couples’ allocation of household labor. To explain this outcome, scholars focus on how structural arrangements and cultural beliefs contribute to the persistence of gender inequality in domestic labor. Yet scholarship has yet to fully clarify what combination of cultural and structural factors create persistent gender inequality in household labor. We use the COVID-19 pandemic as a naturally occurring event in which arrangements for childcare and work were upended, making it possible for many to rethink their household arrangements. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 81 respondents in heterosexual dual-earner couples, we examine how change in structural arrangements allowed some couples to develop a more egalitarian division of domestic labor. We also examine why an unequal division of labor persisted for most couples even amid the dramatic changes in their work and childcare arrangements and, for some, a strong desire to do so. We theorize that, taken alone, neither cultural attitudes nor shifts in the organization of work are sufficient to remove the stickiness of gender inequality in household work. Instead, structural change offers the possibility to change behavior, but only if cultural beliefs exist that make such change desirable.

‘We were all stuffed’: did the Australian COVID-19 lockdowns exacerbate role-specific stress and alcohol use among working mothers? A qualitative analysis

Background During COVID-19 lockdowns, women and parents were more likely to increase their alcohol use. Working mothers in particular faced additional stressors and roles that may have influenced how they drank. In this study, we explored how the experiences of Australian lockdowns affected drinking practices among a sample of working mothers. Methods Between February and June 2022, we conducted 22 semi-structured interviews with working mothers aged 36–51. Participants reflected on their social roles, everyday routines, and drinking practices, highlighting changes that occurred during lockdowns. We applied a critical realist framework, analysing interviews using reflexive thematic analysis. Results Women reflected on increased alcohol use during lockdowns, experiencing intensified emotional attachments toward drinking. Women described using alcohol to manage negative affect and stress brought on by additional responsibilities, such as home-schooling. Participants also discussed increased pervasiveness and permissiveness around alcohol, noting that drinking was promoted as a way to maintain relationships within and outside of households during lockdowns. Conclusion COVID-19 lockdowns provide a case study for examining how working mothers’ stresses were reinforced by structural barriers and social conventions. They highlight how the gendered division of domestic labour can amplify gendered drinking practices, particularly when lives are centred around the home.

Narratives of Children’s Gender Socialization from Fathers Who Take Parental Leave in South Korea

Do leave-taking fathers who 'undo' gender in their division of domestic labour and responsibilities also ‘undo’ gender in relation to their children’s gender socialization? This exploratory qualitative study seeks to understand how leave-taking fathers in South Korea (N = 17) experience and envision their children’s gender socialization by identifying three types of fathers. For ‘committed’ fathers, leave-taking is an extension of their genuine convictions and best efforts to raise children based on feminist ideals, but contradictory messages from non-parental influences such as preschools pose challenges. ‘Conflicted’ fathers undergo significant changes in their views about men and women’s roles through leave uptake but confess to still holding rigid views about children’s gender socialization. ‘Receptive’ fathers demonstrate more open and moderately flexible attitudes to children’s gender roles than the ‘conflicted’ fathers, although not as consciously, proactively, or consistently as the ‘committed’ fathers. The findings indicate that fathers’ uptake of leave leads to diverging, rather than uniform trajectories in fathers’ development of attitudes and behaviours toward children’s socialization. The findings point to the need to consider inconsistencies operating at multiple levels of the ‘gender trap,’ including between fathers’ attitudes toward adult and children’s gender roles, fathers’ behaviours and attitudes, and parental and non-parental influences.

Decolonising demand for paid domestic work and childcare: Beyond dyadic relationships and Western models

Research on the demand for paid domestic workers tends to be based on data from the United States and Western Europe, and to explain that demand in the countries of the Global South is a result of the migration of paid domestic workers to the Global North. This article argues that we need to decolonise our explanations of the demands for paid domestic workers, and to expand them by taking into consideration the unequal division of domestic labour between men and women, and investigating the possibility of other dynamics of demand than those driven by global care chains. Decolonising the demand for paid domestic work also requires a methodological shift. We need to acknowledge that care is not necessarily situated within a nuclear family or a dyadic relationship between a man and a woman. Empirically, I draw on interviews with employers of paid domestic workers in Slovakia. In Slovakia, while negotiations around outsourcing household cleaning are embedded in relationships within the nuclear family, decisions around outsourcing childcare are embedded in relationships beyond the nuclear family, namely, those between mothers and grandmothers. While nannies and babysitters do the work previously done by the mother, in reality they serve as replacements for the grandmothers.

Paternity leave: A systematic review and directions for research

Public debate and research on absence care leaves of men (paternity leaves) is growing in the last years. Practitioners and scholars alike are seeking evidence-informed answers on whether and how paternity leave can help overcome the domestic division of labor, with growing interest in identifying factors that facilitate men's use of this leave. To assess and synthesize this field of study from a theoretical and empirical perspective, we carried out a systematic literature review putting together existing knowledge into a common framework that can inform future research in the field. We analyse trends of paternity leave research over time and its main thematic areas. Findings from this systematic process of synthesis evidence the growing interest of academics (mostly women, and European) in the topic. An organizing framework is presented for understanding male involvement in parenting work suggesting that men's use of paternity leaves is determined by both political/regulatory forces (legislation) and organizational forces (firm's culture and practices), with an impact in a varied range of organizational, psychological and family-related areas including career development, health, and relations with children. We invite future practices and lines of research that more interactively cover regulatory, organizational and family forces that hinder men's use of paternity leave and organizational development, and outline how male-focused practices such as those implemented in European policy should help pursue these goals.

Girls, Wives, Factory Lives : Fifty Years On

Anna Pollert revisits her 1970s ethnographic study of women’s working lives at the Churchman tobacco factory in Bristol to discuss her qualitative methodology and to summarize her findings. In vivid extracts, Pollert recalls the gendered world that women then faced at home as principal family carers and at work – pay, conditions, male managers, a male-dominated union – and analyses their views, values, and lives. Although the 2020s are a very different world from the 1970s, Pollert notes unwelcome continuities – occupational gender segregation, the gender pay gap (albeit narrowed), low pay, and the domestic division of labour in which women still do more work than men. A positive change is that women are more assertive about their rights. However, the greater openness and social liberalism has been accompanied by a fracturing of other certainties such as the availability of public provision and the growth of zero-hours and sub-contract labour. Pollert restates the value of ethnographic research in understanding what goes on at work ‘behind the headlines’ to understand the dynamics of workers’ consciousness and collective action.

Doing Housework in Context: Dyadic Analyses of the Division of Domestic Labor in Contemporary Couples

The persisting gendered division of domestic labor in Western societies remains puzzling. Beyond standard economic and normative explanations, more recent approaches emphasize affective, cognitive, and incorporated aspects of housework and the production, reproduction, and negotiation of gendered expectations via social interactions. However, the relevant indicators for these more implicit mechanisms are not routinely included in social surveys. Based on a unique set of items and a representative sample of heterosexual couples ( N = 1396) from pairfam (wave 10), we analyze the mutual effects of both partners’ enjoyment, quality standards, and reciprocally perceived competencies on the division of housework. Actor–partner interdependence models (APIM) are applied, which explicitly model the partner dyad. Both an actor’s own and their partner’s assessments of competences and preferences—and particularly men’s attributes and perceptions—prove to be powerful predictors of housework share. The results contribute quantitative evidence on processes of doing and undoing gender in context.

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

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.

Attitude towards gender division of labor and convictions regarding the nature of spousal relationships among never married youth in Ethiopia

The gendered distribution of house work is one of the most significant concerns leading to the perpetuation of gender inequality. The objective of the present study was to identify attitudes towards gender division of labor and convictions regarding the nature of spousal relationships among never married youth in Wolaita Sodo town. A cross-sectional study design with a survey research method was used to collect quantitative data from randomly selected unmarried youth. A total of 403 young people participated in the study, of which 377 (254 males & 123 females) fully completed and returned the questionnaire. Data were analyzed and presented using both descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. The result of the study shows 64.1% of them believe that both husband and wife should share household tasks. Respondents have also a relatively favorable attitude towards gender-based division of housework (M=2.5, SD=.37582) and negative attitude towards gender-based violence against women (M=2, SD=.51754). Results of coefficients of regression found that age, sex, and residential background of respondents are the independent variables significantly affecting respondents’ attitude towards gender division of domestic labor, gender equality, and gender-based violence. While there is a widely held belief that men should do housework, attitudes towards the classification between public and domestic tasks is found to be less gendered in the study area. Moreover, despite a widely held belief that public tasks and housework should not be gender segregated, the belief in the capability of women to do public tasks equally with men has been found to be low.

Fathers stepping up? A cross-national comparison of fathers’ domestic labour and parents’ satisfaction with the division of domestic labour during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACTThe COVID-19 pandemic disrupted work and family life around the world. For parents, this upending meant a potential re-negotiation of the ‘status quo’ in the gendered division of labour. A comparative lens provides extended understandings of changes in fathers’ domestic work based in socio-cultural context – in assessing the size and consequences of change in domestic labour in relation to the type of work-care regime. Using novel harmonized data from four countries (the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands) and a work-care regime framework, this study examines cross-national changes in fathers’ shares of domestic labour during the early months of the pandemic and whether these changes are associated with parents’ satisfaction with the division of labour. Results indicate that fathers’ shares of housework and childcare increased early in the pandemic in all countries, with fathers’ increased shares of housework being particularly pronounced in the US. Results also show an association between fathers’ increased shares of domestic labour and mothers’ increased satisfaction with the division of domestic labour in the US, Canada, and the UK. Such comparative work promises to be generative for understanding the pandemic’s imprint on gender relations far into the future.

Care is not a tally sheet: rethinking the field of gender divisions of domestic labour with care-centric conceptual narratives

This article addresses two puzzles that are at the heart of the field of gender divisions of domestic labour. How is it that care concepts seldom appear in a field that is focused on unpaid care work? Why does the field focus on divisions rather than on relationships and relationalities? To address these puzzles, I interrogate some of the conceptual underpinnings in the field’s dominant theories: social exchange and ‘doing gender’. Through a weaving of Margaret Somers’ historical sociology of concept formation and Nancy Fraser’s historical mapping of capitalism, care and social reproduction, I aim to rethink and remake the field of gender divisions of domestic labour through care theories, especially feminist care ethics and care economies research. I argue that care concepts – which highlight relationalities, responsiveness and responsibilities – can radically re-orient how we approach the ‘who’ and ‘what’ questions of this field’s long-standing central focus on ‘who does what?’

A dyadic study of the spouses’ assessment of the division of domestic labour and marital satisfaction

ABSTRACT In this study, we tested a model connecting the spouses’ assessment of the division of domestic labour and their marital satisfaction. The suggested model was tested in a dyadic study using a sample of heterosexual couples living in Israel and having at least one child (n = 479). The spouses assessed the division of domestic labour in four domains: traditionally feminine chores, traditionally masculine chores, childcare, and emotion work. Husbands who reported doing fewer traditionally feminine chores and less emotion work were more satisfied with their marriage. Wives who reported doing fewer traditionally masculine chores and less childcare and emotion work were more satisfied with their marriage. Simultaneously, husbands who reported doing fewer masculine chores and less emotion work tended to have wives with higher levels of marital satisfaction. Wives who reported doing fewer feminine chores and less emotion work tended to have husbands with higher levels of marital satisfaction. Husbands and wives reported similar levels of marital satisfaction, and their levels of marital satisfaction were strongly positively correlated. The obtained results indicated the existence of two mechanisms connecting the division of domestic labour to marital satisfaction: an egoistic mechanism and the gratitude mechanism.

Gendered impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic: a mixed-method study of teacher stress and work-life balance

ABSTRACT There is a growing concern that the COVID-19 pandemic has had disproportionate impacts on women, especially those with children. Female educators, and, in particular, those with childcare responsibilities, have also reported higher levels of stress and work-life challenges as compared to their male counterparts. It is unclear exactly which factors are behind these disparities. However, while some have pointed to the gendered division of domestic labor as the main contributor, other pandemic-related and work-related stressors may be involved in female educators’ increased stress levels and work-life balance challenges. To address this question, this mixed-methods research draws on survey data gathered from 752 educators across New York State. Findings demonstrate that women reported higher levels of stress and work-life balance challenges than their male counterparts. While quantitative analyses indicated that gender disparities in work-life balance challenges were related to the higher stress women experienced from work and COVID-19 rather than childcare responsibilities, qualitative analyses of open-ended survey responses revealed that childcare duties were nonetheless an important factor impacting work-life balance challenges for both men and women. This article has significant implications for the teaching profession and adds broader insights into the gendered effects of the pandemic.

Value preferences of spouses and division of domestic labor in the family: A dyadic study

AbstractObjectiveThis study investigated the effect of the spouses' value preferences on the division of domestic labor in the family.BackgroundPersonal value preferences reflect general motivations and thus affect individuals' perception of reality and direct behavior. In the present study, I assumed that the personal value preferences of spouses motivate them to participate in different domains of domestic labor to varying degrees.MethodThe study was conducted in Israel using a sample of heterosexual couples having at least one child (N = 479). I measured the value preferences of the spouses and division of domestic labor in the family in four domains: traditionally female chores, traditionally male chores, childcare, and emotion work. Dyadic data analysis was conducted using structural equation modeling.ResultsAmong husbands, a higher preference for the self‐transcendence values was associated with a more equal division of domestic labor in the family; that is, with a larger share of husbands in traditionally female chores, childcare, and emotion work, and with their smaller share in traditionally male chores. Among wives, higher preferences for openness to change and self‐enhancement values were associated with a more equal division of domestic labor in the family.ConclusionThe results confirmed that the spouses' general motivational goals expressed in their value preferences affected their participation in different domains of domestic labor.ImplicationsThe study advances researchers' and practitioners' understanding of the intrapersonal motivational factors affecting the division of domestic labor and provides a solid basis for further research and counseling work with families.

US Parents' Domestic Labor During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

It is important to assess the long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for gender equality, but we know little about US parents’ domestic arrangements beyond the early days of the pandemic or how simultaneous changes in employment, earnings, telework, gender ideologies, and care supports may have altered domestic arrangements. This study assesses changes in parents’ domestic labor during the first year of the pandemic using fixed-effects regression on data from a longitudinal panel of 700 different-sex partnered US parents collected at three time points: March, April, and November 2020. Parents’ divisions of housework and childcare became more equal early in the pandemic, but divisions of housework reverted toward pre-pandemic levels by Fall 2020 whereas fathers’ shares of childcare remained elevated. Changes in parents’ divisions of domestic labor were largely driven by changes in parents’ labor force conditions, but shifts in gender ideology also mattered. Decreases in fathers’ labor force participation and increases in telecommuting in April portended increases in fathers’ shares of domestic tasks. As fathers increased their time in paid work and returned to in-person work by fall, their shares of domestic labor fell. Shifts toward more traditional gender ideologies were also associated with decreases in fathers’ shares of childcare in Fall 2020. Overall, results point to remote work as a possible means for achieving greater gender equality in domestic labor among couples, but shifts toward traditional gender ideologies may suppress any gains stemming from supportive work–family policies.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11113-022-09735-1.

Flexible Working and the Division of Housework and Childcare: Examining Divisions across Arrangement and Occupational Lines

Using the UK Household Longitudinal Study we examine how flexible working is associated with the division of housework and childcare among dual-earner heterosexual couples with young children. Although flexible working may enable better work-family integration, it can also reinforce traditional divisions of domestic labour where women perform more housework and childcare. The degree to which this occurs may vary across arrangements due to differences in the flexibility and permeability of boundaries. We also expect occupational variations but in a paradoxical manner; the constraints and resources workers have may cause the associations to conflict with assumptions based on gender role attitudes. Results show that arrangements that allow more boundary blurring, such as homeworking, are associated with more traditional divisions of childcare but not necessarily of housework. Flexitime, especially for the lower-skilled/paid occupations, enables a more egalitarian division of labour, possibly because it is used to maximise households’ working hours and income.