Household division of labour among European mixed partnerships

Abstract

Household duties have been a privileged terrain for academic research in recent decades, given that they represent an excellent field in which to observe how gender differentials have developed since women entered the paid labour market. However, despite the number of investigations that have centred on this subject, the results advanced in relation to housework dynamics among mixed partnerships have been few and confusing. Therefore, and as a means of partially overcoming this absence, the present paper looks at household gender division among European upper-middle class mixed couples living in Lisbon. The 15 interviewed couples revealed several dimensions of the allocation of housework performed by each spouse, particularly: a) the type of tasks undertaken; b) the amount of time devoted to home chores; c) the purchasing of formal help services for the performance of domestic duties; and d) perceptions of fairness in the distribution of home activities. After discussing each of these dimensions, in a final section we will suggest some of the lines of inquiry that might help expand further investigations dedicated to this topic.