Women's Perceptions of Fairness and the Persistence of an Unequal Division of Housework
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September 1997
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Abstract
In the continuing endeavour to find convincing explanations for the persistence of an unequal division of domestic work, researchers have been addressing the following question: Do women who are doing most of the work believe they are being treated unjustly? The author determined that the majority of employed wives who are carrying by far the greater load of unpaid work declare that they were being treated fairly by their partners. The predictions of feminists that their consciousness raising activities, coupled with the entry of most wives into the paid workforce, would result in wives recognising that they were being exploited by their husbands have not been fulfilled. The author stresses that employed women often pay a high price physically and psychologically for the persistence of an inequitable division of housework. They have higher rates of depressive illness than employed husbands and many employed women are perpetually tired, often with feelings of ambivalence and resentment.
In the continuing endeavour to find convincing explanations for the persistence of an unequal division of domestic work, researchers have been addressing the following question: Do women who are doing most of the work believe they are being treated unjustly? The author determined that the majority of employed wives who are carrying by far the greater load of unpaid work declare that they were being treated fairly by their partners. The predictions of feminists that their consciousness raising activities, coupled with the entry of most wives into the paid workforce, would result in wives recognising that they were being exploited by their husbands have not been fulfilled. The author stresses that employed women often pay a high price physically and psychologically for the persistence of an inequitable division of housework. They have higher rates of depressive illness than employed husbands and many employed women are perpetually tired, often with feelings of ambivalence and resentment.