Equality

• March of Progress View


  • Women going to work is leading to equal division of labour at home
  • Men are becoming more involved in housework and childcare just as women are becoming more involved in paid work
• Gershuny 1994 argues women working full-time is leading to more equal division of labour. Using time studies, he found that these women did less domestic work.
• Sullivan 2000 found a trend towards women doing a smaller share of domestic work and men doing more, collected by her analysis of nationally representative data in 1975, 1987 and 1997. Her analysis also showed increase in couples with equal division of labour and that men were more involved in traditional women's tasks
• British social attitudes survey found fall in number of people who think it's the man's job to earn money and the woman's job to look after home and family. In 1984, 45% men and 41% women agreed with this view, but in 2012 only 13% of men and 12% of women agreed
• These trends highlight change in traditional division of labour
• Feminist View


  • Women going into paid work has not led to greater equality
  • There is little signs of the new man
• British social attitudes survey 2012 shoes men did 8 hours housework, whereas women did 13 hours. The survey also found that couples continue to divide tasks along traditional gender lines. For example, women were more likely to do the laundry and prepare meals, while men do repairs around the house.
• Allan 1985 argues women's tasks are less intrinsically satisfying
• Surveys focus on quantifiable aspects such as who performs which tasks and how much time they spend on them. This tells us nothing about who takes responsibility for ensuring that the tasks are done.
• Boulton 1983 argues fathers perform specific childcare tasks but mothers take responsibility for child's security and well-being. This is supported by: Ferri and Smith 1996 - found fathers took responsibility for childcare in fewer than 4% of families, Dex and Wood 2007- found 1% of fathers took responsibility of caring for a sick child, Braun, Vincent and Ball 2011 - found in only 3 of 70 studied families the father was main carer.
• Women often have to perform as named by Hochschild 2013 'emotion work'. This is where they are responsible for managing the feelings and emotions of family members.
• Duncombe and Marsden 1995 argue that women have to perform a triple shift of housework, paid work and emotion work
• Southerton 2011 notes differences in leisure time for women and men. Men are likely to get uninterrupted leisure time whereas women's leisure is punctuated by child care.
• Explanations for gender division

  • Cultural/Ideological explanations
  • Material/Economic explanations
• Cultural Explanation


  • Equality will only be achieved when norms and gender roles change
  • There is some evidence for this explanation: Gershuny 1994 found couples whose parents had equal relationship were more likely to follow, so parental role models are important
  • Man Yee Kan 2001 found younger men do more domestic work. This suggests a generational shift in behaviour is occurring
  • British social attitudes survey 2013 - less than 10%of under 35s agreed with traditional division of labour as against 30% of over 65s. Indicated a long term change in norms, values and attitudes
  • Dunne 1999 - found lesbian couples had more symmetrical relationships because of absence of traditiona heterosexual gender scripts, that is, norms which set out different gender roles men and women are expected to play
• Material Explanation


  • If women join labour force and earn as much as their partners then we should see men and women doing more equal amounts of domestic work
  • Kan found for every £10,000 a year more women earns she does 2 hours less house work per week
  • Arber and Ginn 1995 found middle class couples more able to buy labour saving devices, ready meals and get child help
  • Ramos 2003 found where woman is full time breadwinner and man is unemployed, he does same domestic labour as she does
  • Sullivan shows working full time makes difference in terms of how much domestic work each partner does