The Division of Housework Among Working Couples: Distinguishing Characteristics of Egalitarian Couples

Abstract

Purpose – The current literature of housework division consistently finds positive consequences of an equitable division of housework (particularly for working women). This study looks to more fully explore the characteristics that predict an egalitarian division of housework.

Methodology – This study integrates three theoretical perspectives – relative resource theory, life course theory, and gender studies – and uses data from a nationally representative data set to investigate couples who divide household labor more evenly and compares them to more traditional couples where the woman performs most of the housework using multivariate and logistic regression.

Findings – This study finds that the more resources a spouse possesses, the more likely that spouse is to engage in housework equitably. From a life course perspective, findings show that the longer a woman waits to marry, the more likely she is to have an egalitarian marriage; and length of marriage is a positive predictor of an inegalitarian marriage. Stronger than any other factor in predicting an egalitarian relationship are men's and women's progressive gender ideologies.

Originality of paper – Past research on the division of housework has focused on how chores are sex-typed and divided between men and women, but little investigation has focused on those couples who practice a more egalitarian housework division. This study uniquely finds a clear and irrefutable link between progressive ideologies and egalitarianism, as well as a link between conservative ideologies and “inegalitarianism.”

Citation

Turk, J.K. (2012), "The Division of Housework Among Working Couples: Distinguishing Characteristics of Egalitarian Couples", Lee Blair, S. (Ed.) Economic Stress and the Family (Contemporary Perspectives in Family Research, Vol. 6), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 235-258. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1530-3535(2012)0000006012