Are Couples Becoming More Equal?

The March of Progress View

The Feminist View

Taking Responsibility for children

Cultural Explanation

Material Explanation

Optimistic view, argues that women going out to work is leading to a more equal division of labour in the home

Men are becoming more involved in housework and childcare as women are becoming more involved in paid work

Reflects change in attitudes towards the traditional division of labour

Women going into paid work has not led to greater equality in the division of labour, little sign of the 'new man'

Women now carry a dual burden

Survey in 2012 showed that men did 8 hours of housework a week compared to a woman's 13

Household tasks are still divided along gender lines

Boultan points out that although many fathers help perform specific childcare tasks, it is the mother who takes responsibility for the child's wellbeing

  • Ferri and Smith - found that fathers took responsibility in fewer than 4% of families
  • Dex and Ward - although fathers had high levels of involvement, 78% played with child while 1% took care of them while sick
  • Braun, Vincent and Ball - 3/70 families the father was the main carer, most held a 'provider ideology' as breadwinners, with the mothers as primary carers

Triple Shift - women have to perform emotion work, paid work and housework

If women join the labour force we should expect to see men and women doing equal amounts of work

  • Kan - for every $10,000 a year more a women earns, she does two less hours of housework in a week
  • Arber and Ginn - middle class women could buy commercial products that saved time on housework
  • Ramos - when women is full time breadwinner and man is unemployed, they do the same amount of domestic labour
  • Sullivan - working full-time rather than part-time makes the difference in how much domestic work each partner does

Equality will only be achieved when norms about gender roles change

  • Gershuny - couples who's parents had a more equal relationship were more likely to share housework equally
  • Kan - younger men do more domestic work
    -BSA - 10% of under 35s agreed with traditional distribution of labour, against 30% of the over 65s
  • Dunne - lesbian couples had more symmetrical relationships because of the absence of gender scripts