Are couples becoming more equal

• Triple shift


  where women were having to balance housework, paid work and emotion work whilst the men only did paid work
• dual burden 


  when a person is responsible for two jobs e.g. women being responsible for childcare whilst also doing paid work
• Sullivan 2000

  • collected data in 1975, 1987,1997
  • found a trend toward women doing a smaller share of domestic work and men doing more
  • showed an increase in the number of couples with an equal division of labour and that men were participating more in traditional 'womens' tasks
• feminist view of housework

  • Feminists do not believe women working has led to greater equality
  • still little sign of the 'new man' who does equal share of housework and childcare
  • Women now carry a dual burden of paid work and domestic work
  • British Social Attitudes (2013) shows women do twice as much and couples still divide household tasks along traditional gender lines
  • There has been little change since the 1990s
• Dex and Ward (2007)

  • found that only 1% of fathers took the main responsibility for caring for a sick child
• Ferri and Smith

  • found that father took responsibility for childcare in fewer than 4% of families
• Braun, Vincent and Ball 2011

  • found that only 3 families out of 70 showed the father to be the main carer
  • most fathers were 'background fathers' - helping with childcare was more about their relationship with their partner than their responsibility with their partner
  • They held a 'provider ideology': their role was breadwinner not primary carer
  • this was underpinned by ideas about 'intensive mothering' in the media telling women how to be good mothers
• taking responsibility for 'quality time'

  • Women generally take responsibility for managing the family's quality time
  • In late modernity, the 24/7 society and flexible working mean people's time is more fragmented and de-routinised
  • Working mothers find themselves juggling competing demands on their time
  • women will likely experience less leisure time than men and if they get any it will be interrupted
  • women are more likely to multi-task than men
• cultural or ideological explanation of inequality

  • the division of labour is determined by patriarchal norms and values that shape gender roles
  • Women perform more domestic labour because this is what society expects and has socialised them to do
• material or economic explanation of inequality

  • Women generally earn less than men, so it is economically rational for them to do more domestic labour while men spend more time earning money
• Gershuny 1994

  • found that couples whose parents had a more equal relationship are more likely to share housework equally themselves
  • this suggests parental role models are important
  • argues that social values are gradually adapting to the fact that women are now working full time establishing a new norm that men should do more domestic work
• British Social Attitudes Survey 2013

  • Survey shows men in 2012 did an average of 8hrs housework a week, women did 13
  • Men spent 10hrs caring for a member, women spent 23.
  • Women do 2x as much as men, and 60% felt the division is unjust and has them do more than their fair share
  • Survey also found couples still divide tasks by traditional gender roles, like women do more laundry and men do small repairs- patterns remain the same as 1994
  • shows a fall in the number of people who believe in instrumental and expressive roles (45% men:41% women agreed in 1984, 13% men:12% women agreed in 2012)