Are couples becoming more equal

• March of progress view:

  • Women going out to work is a more equal division of labour at home, men involved in housework.
• Sociologists on March of progress view:

  • Gershuny (1994): women working full-time more equal division of labour, these women did less domestic labour.
• Changes in march of progess view statistics:

  • 1984, 45% of men + 41% of women agreed that mens job was to earn money and women to look after home.
  • But 2012, 13% of men + 12% of women agreed with this.
• Taking responsibility for children (sociologists):

  • Boulton (1983), father may be performing specific childcare tasks, but mothers do the majority of care through child security/well-being.
  • Dex + Ward (2007), although father has high involvement, but only 1% take main responsibility.
  • Braun, Vincent, Ball (2011), 3 out of 70 families studied where father holds 'provider ideology' and mother 'intensive mothering' in media.
• Emotion work + The triple shift:

  • Hochschild (2013), refers to emotion work meaning women are often required to perform emotion work, responsible for managing family feelings.
  • 'Triple shift' performing housework, paid and emotion work introduced by Duncombe + Marden (1995).
• Responsibility for 'Quality time':

  • Southerton (2011), say managing quality time falls mostly to mothers.
  • Quality time has become difficult to achieve due to recent social changes such as emergence of 24/7 society + flexible working patterns, more fragmented/de-routinised.