Less Conventional Households

• According to Mansfield and Collard there is a far greater emphasis on equal sharing of tasks and power in cohabiting households, especially when there are no children, as the couples take pride in creating a relationship that is different from marriage. Dunne found this was even more the case with lesbian couples.
• Reconstituted families are likely to have complex and varied divisions of labour where parents are trying to maintain relationships and responsibilities for more than one set of children. The gendered division of labour is irrelevant to the growing number of single-parent families. In these the parent with whom the children are living may be primarily a carer, living on benefits or maintenance, or the parent may work and rely on a relative or paid carer to take the domestic role.