MONEY MATTERS:

This study examined the significance of earnings ratios, for the division of family work and gender-role attitudes among 136 physician couples in Israel. Consistent with resource theory, 'moderns' (both earned the same) and 'innovatives' (wives earned more than the husbands) had a more egalitarian division of labor in the home and gender-role ideology than 'conventionals' (the husbands earned more than the wives). A discriminant analysis revealed that the three groups of men were distinguished primarily by their behavior in the family - the lower their relative earnings, the greater their participation in child-care and housework - and by the relative importance they attributed to their wives' career success. The three groups of women were distinguished by their attitudes - women who earned less than their husbands had more traditional gender-role attitudes and attributed lesser importance to their own career success than to that of their husbands', but were more satisfied with their ability to combine family and work than women who earned the same or more. The innovative couples combined a strong joint commitment to both their work and their children.     

Distributive Justice in the Household

Abstract

We analyze the theoretical basis on which wives and husbands evaluate the fairness of the division of household labor. Using distributive justice theory, we argue that evaluations are based on beliefs about equality and equity rules and social comparisons. We developed a number of formal models to account for evaluations of housework fairness and compare these with data from the 1987 National Survey of Families and Households. We find that husbands' evaluations of fairness of the division of household labor are based on more traditional gender-based division of labor as their comparisons tend to be based on comparisons to other men's participation in housework. In contrast, wives' evaluations are based on both gender role norms and the justice principle of marital equality, as they tend to be based on comparisons between their spouse and themselves.     

Predictors of Marital Satisfaction Among Korean Immigrant Spouses in the United States

ABSTRACT

This study investigated marital satisfaction among Korean immigrant spouses. Level of acculturation, the number of years of U.S. residence, status inconsistency, annual income, educational level, decision making, division of household tasks, and communication problems were hypothesized to be predictors of marital satisfaction. A snowball sampling strategy yielded 304 respondents. Results showed that level of acculturation was significantly associated with marital satisfaction for Korean immigrant husbands, but not for Korean immigrant wives. Marital decision making was significantly related to marital satisfaction for Korean immigrant wives but not for Korean immigrant husbands. Both acculturation and marital decision making accounted for only 3% of the variance in marital satisfaction. For both spouses, conjugal communication problems were the best predictor of marital satisfaction (16% and 37% of variance explained for husbands and wives, respectively).     

Gendered Resources,Division of Housework,and Perceived Fairness—A Case in Urban China

Drawing upon equity and gender theories, we investigate Chinese couples' perceived fairness of the wife's disproportionately heavy household responsibility. Data come from in‐depth interviews with 39 married couples in Beijing during the summer of 1998. Although housework division remained unequal among dual‐earner couples, the majority of wives and husbands saw it as fair. We explore the notion of gendered resources by examining husbands' and wives' opinions about both paid and domestic work. We find that husband's breadwinner role and wife's housekeeper role retain their primary place in the family and that gender‐role expectations produce gendered resources to both wives and husbands. These expectations release both the husbands, who have fulfilled the provider role, from the obligation to share housework equally, and the wives, who combine paid and domestic work, from an equal responsibility of breadwinning. Therefore, the failure to bring adequate gendered resources to a marriage, rather than the unequal distribution of housework, causes a sense of unfairness.     

Perceived Fairness and Satisfaction with the Division of Housework Among Dual-Earner Couples in Italy

A well-documented paradox in family literature is that most married women and men consider the division of household labor to be fair, although its distribution is quite uneven. In this article I report results from a survey on 404 dual-earner couples with young children living in Torino, Italy. A small proportion of wives and husbands (13.6% and 5.7%, respectively) reported both unfairness and dissatisfaction with the division of housework. The absolute majority (55%) of both wives and husbands perceived fairness and satisfaction, even if most of the chores (about two-thirds) fell on wives’ shoulders. To explain these judgments, elements of Thompson's distributive justice theoretical framework were operationalized and tested. A critical reassessment of these elements is provided, based on empirical findings.     

Depression, marital satisfaction, and marital and personality measures of sex roles*

The present study examined the relationship between depression, marital satisfaction, and marital and personality measures of sex roles. Subjects included 50 couples in which the woman was clinically depressed (and of which 26 were maritally distressed), and 24 nondepressed, nondistressed control couples. Results indicated that compared to nondepressed couples, husbands and wives in relationships in which the wife was depressed showed greater inequality in decision making and dissatisfaction with the distribution of decision making and household tasks; wives additionally indicated greater dissatisfaction with distribution of childrearing responsibilities. The relationship between marital roles and depression was largely mediated by the impact of marital distress in the clinic couples. In addition, depressed wives were less masculine than nondepressed wives, and women with high levels of masculinity reported less depression than women with low levels.     

Working Hard and Hardly Working: Domestic Labor and Marital Satisfaction Among Dual‐Earner Couples

This article examines the effect of domestic labor, gender ideology, work status, and economic dependency on marital satisfaction using data obtained from self‐administered questionnaires for 156 dual‐earner couples. Analytic distinctions were drawn among three aspects of domestic labor: household tasks, emotion work, and status enhancement. The effects of each of these elements of the division of domestic labor on marital satisfaction were tested. We also tested the effects of a respondent's satisfaction with the couple's division of domestic labor on marital satisfaction. Finally, we tested the effects of gender ideology, hours spent in paid work each week, and economic dependency on marital satisfaction. For women, satisfaction with the division of household tasks and emotion work and their contributions to household and status‐enhancement tasks were the most significant predictors of marital satisfaction. Satisfaction with the division of labor around both emotion work and housework were significant predictors for men's marital satisfaction. Partner's status‐enhancement work was also predictive for men. Economic dependency, paid work hours, gender ideology, partner's hours spent on housework, contributions to emotion work, and number of children and preschool‐age children had only indirect effects on women's marital satisfaction. For men, hours spent on housework, contributions to emotion work, partner's emotion work, hours spent in the paid labor force, and number of preschool children had an indirect effect on marital satisfaction.     

What's Fair Is Fair? Role of Justice in Family Labor Allocation Decisions

ABSTRACT

The theoretical basis on which wives and husbands in the United States evaluate the fairness of the division of household labor is explored. Based on distributive justice theory, separate interviews with wives and husbands are conducted to identify and define the household inputs or contributions that are valued as well as the underlying justice principles that guide household labor allocations. The findings suggest considerable variation in the value placed on household chores and the underlying justice principles used when allocating housework. Gendered expectations also play an important role in these allocations.     

Husbands’ and wives’ time spent on housework: A comparison of measures

This study compares a series of estimates of the time spent on housework from survey responses and time‐use estimates from the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) obtained from husbands and wives in the Sloan 500 Family Study. These include estimates from husband's and wife's answers to questions about own time and spouse's time on household tasks, and time‐use estimates from the ESM. The three ESM estimates include primary activity only, primary plus secondary activity, and primary and secondary activity plus time spent thinking about household tasks. We find that estimates of hours spent on housework differ substantially and significantly across various measures, as does the absolute size of the gap between hours spent by husbands and wives. Share of housework done by husbands differs somewhat less.     

The Division of Household Labor: Longitudinal Changes and Within‐Couple Variation

This study examined how the division of household labor changed as a function of marital duration and whether within‐couple variation in spouses' relative power and availability were linked to within‐couple variation in the division of labor. On 4 occasions over 7 years, 188 stably married couples reported on their housework activities using daily diaries. Multilevel models revealed that wives' portions of household responsibilities declined over time and that changes in spouses' relative income and work hours were linked to changes in housework allocation. Wives with husbands who perceived greater marital control, on average, did proportionally more housework, and for couples with husbands who had highly autonomous jobs, changes in spouses' relative psychological job involvement were linked to changes in housework allocation. The findings highlight the importance of understanding household division of labor as a life span phenomenon, the distinction between within‐ versus between‐couple associations, and the multidimensional nature of power and availability.     

Extreme Financial Strain: Emergent Chores,Gender Inequality and Emotional Distress

This qualitative study examines the gendered division, and emotional effects, of household financial labor among severely indebted couples prior to filing consumer bankruptcy. Interviews with 19 newly bankrupt couples in Spokane, Washington, illustrate how, before bankruptcy, the peripheral and mundane chore of paying bills transforms into multiple arduous core chores: micro-management of money, debt collector negotiations, and researching and deciding to file bankruptcy. These newly emergent low-control chores are gendered and the wives’ responsibility. Gendering occurs for two reasons. Some women retain responsibility for emergent chores because husbands exhibit financial irresponsibility. Others request their husbands’ assistance, but the men refuse because the financial chores are upsetting or bothersome. Many wives who manage the newly emergent financial chores experience negative emotional effects.     

Cross‐national variations in the division of household labor

Using data from the International Social Justice Project, we describe the division of household labor in married couple households using a sample of 13 nations (N= 10,153). We find significant differences in the division of household labor based upon respondents’ nations of residence. We find support for the time availability approach; households where the wife is employed outside the home for pay are more likely to respond that husbands perform at least half of the household labor. We also find support for the relative resources approach; in households where wives’ education equals or exceeds that of their husbands, husbands are more likely to perform half of the household labor. We find little support for the economic dependence approach. We suggest that future cross‐national research should place individuals in context to determine why there are nation differences in the reported division of household labor.     

Division of Household Labor and Marital Satisfaction in China, Japan, and Korea

In this study, we compared the association of marital satisfaction with the division of household labor in China, Japan, and Korea. Results revealed that wives’ marital satisfaction was negatively associated with their burden of housework in the three Asian countries, as generally observed in Western countries. However, there were noticeable cross-country differences. Chinese couples were relatively in favor of an egalitarian division of household labor. Japanese couples were supportive of traditional specialization, with wives flexibly shifting their efforts between work outside the house and housework. Korean couples were under pressure from conflicts between the wife’s labor force participation and the traditional division of labor. These findings underscored the importance of the socio-institutional context in the study of marital satisfaction.     

"Her" Marriage after the Revolutions

Recent social changes have made husbands' emotional investments and wives' perceptions of equity in the division of housework crucial for women's marital happiness. But wives are also happiest in their marriages when they share a strong normative commitment to lifelong marriage with their husbands and when their husbands take the lead in breadwinning. Thus our research suggests that elements of the new and the old promote marital happiness among contemporary wives.     

Marital Quality Ten Years After the Transition to Parenthood: Implications of the Timing of Parenthood and the Division of Housework

Using a sample of 180 dual‐earner, nondivorced couples, this study explored how the timing of parenthood and the division of housework are related to husbands' and wives' marital quality during the childrearing years. Hypothesized to be “at risk” for negative marital evaluations were early first‐birth couples who divided tasks in a less‐traditional manner and delayed first‐birth couples who divided tasks in a traditional manner. Analyses revealed that husbands and wives in the “risk” groups evaluated their marriages more negatively, suggesting that congruence between behaviors, background, and attitudes is important for marital quality. In addition, early first‐birth couples evaluated their marriages more poorly than did the “on time” or “delayed” couples. Wives' gender‐typed attitudes emerged as a significant covariate in the analyses but did not account for the effects of the timing of parenthood and the timing of parenthood × the division of housework interactions.     

The Management of Household and Childcare Tasks and Relationship Satisfaction in Dual-Earner Families

Abstract

The investigation examined the mental work associated with managing a household and raising young children and how such mental work might be associated with relationship satisfaction. Forty-five parents with young children completed questionnaires that assessed marital satisfaction and mothers' and fathers' perceptions of who did what in their household in terms of household tasks, childcare tasks, household management, and childcare management, as well as how much they worried about the completion of each of these tasks. Results indicate that fathers' marital satisfaction and mothers' marital satisfaction differed in terms of the division of labor and management of labor.     

Love attitude and marital adjustment in the family life cycle

The present study examines husband and wife perceptions of attitude toward love and marital satisfaction through seven family life cycle stages. A significant relationship was determined between husbands’ and wives’ attitude toward love and marital satisfaction for couples in the early years of marriage with no children, and for couples with children in the preschool years. Marital satisfaction and attitude toward love seem to function more independently of one another in the other family life stages. Overall, husbands vary slightly more than wives on marital satisfaction and attitude toward love, but the pattern for both is similar in that each relationship is curvilinear.     

Migration and women's status: the Jordan case

This study examines whether women's improved status is dependent upon fulfillment of husbands' roles after their departure and the degree of success in economic participation. The sample includes 518 households with out-migrant husbands (HOMH) and 532 households with resident spouses (HRS). HRS were located in the same cluster as HOMH. The samples are not nationally representative. HOMH are distinctive in their having higher educational levels. A larger percentage of migrant wives perform household tasks by themselves. Wives of migrant husbands, who worked in the labor force, have a greater burden of work after departure. 52% of migrant wives decreased the number of social visits to family and friends. Migrant households have fewer relatives and parents living in the household. 40% report improvement in spousal relations and 41% report no change. 19-21% report that the wife's relations with relatives improved. Findings contradict conclusions by Kamiar and Isamil. The proportion of children attending school was higher among HOMH. 13% of married women in HOMH and 7% of married women in HRS participate in the labor force. After controlling for educational levels, findings indicate that labor force activity is still greater among migrant wives. Almost 50% join the labor force after their husband's departure. None work in agriculture. Labor force participation rates remain high during the first 15 years of migration. Participation declines after 15 years and as husbands reach age 40. Wives view their husbands' migration as beneficial.     

Why emotion work matters: sex,gender, and the division of household labor

Attempting to explain why biological sex remains the primary predictor of household labor allocation, gender theorists have suggested that husbands and wives perform family work in ways that facilitate culturally appropriate constructions of gender. To date, however, researchers have yet to consider the theoretical and empirical significance of emotion work in their studies of the gendered division of household labor. Using survey data from 335 employed, married parents, I examine the relative influence of economic resources, time constraints, gender ideology, sex, and gender on the performance of housework, child care, and emotion work. Results indicate that gender construction, not sex, predicts the performance of emotion work and that this performance reflects a key difference in men's and women's gendered constructions of self.     

Economic Dependence,Gender, and the Division of Labor in the Home: A Replication and Extension

The fundamental question in the study of the gendered division of household labor has come to be why, in the face of dramatic changes in women's employment and earnings, housework remains “women's work.” As a possible answer to this question, Brines (1994) presented a provocative conceptual model of the relationship between economic dependence and the performance of housework by wives and husbands. She concluded that the link between economic dependence and housework follows rules of economic exchange for wives, but among husbands, a gender display model is operative. This paper replicates and extends Brines' model by (a) replicating her work using a different data set; (b) adding additional controls to the model, including a measure of gender ideology; and (c) modeling a distributional (as opposed to absolute) measure of housework. For a measure of hours spent doing housework, the results of my analyses are consistent with Brines' suggestion of separate gender‐specific processes linking economic dependence and amount of housework performed. For a distributional measure of housework, on the other hand, my analyses contradict Brines' findings and suggest that both husbands and wives are acting to neutralize a nonnormative provider role when they do housework. Further analyses suggest that the phenomenon is more likely one of deviance neutralization than of gender display.