A resource/dependence approach to explaining the marital division of household labor

This research examines the effects of personal, social, and socioeconomic resources and gender-role attitudes upon married respondents' and their spouses' housework contributions and how that relationship is mediated by respondents' perceived dependence on their spouses. This feminist-based "resource/dependence" approach draws from Social Exchange theorist Richard Emerson who theorizes that power is a function of dependence and the availability of alternative sources of valued rewards.;This study predicts that the power effect of resources on housework incorporates how persons perceive themselves dependent on a spouse within various life areas. The indirect effect of resources on housework (via dependence) is conceptualized as a power effect, while the direct effect may tap an "exchange" based on equity norms. Perceived spousal dependence spouse is measured by how "worse off" or "better off" respondents perceive they would be without their spouses within several life areas (thereby implicitly tapping perceived alternatives).;Data on married couples from the National Survey of Families and Households are analyzed using multiple-regression in order to test the following main hypotheses: (1) Greater resources decrease dependence which, in turn, decreases respondents' relative and absolute housework contributions; (2) If women tend to use different distribution rules of exchange than men (e.g. altruism), women's resources will have a smaller effect than men's in increasing women's power and in decreasing their housework contributions, since women would be less likely to use their resources to gain power and avoid housework.;Results suggest that the proposed model was not tested adequately and highlight the need to carefully reconceptualize "dependence," since the presumed "dependence" measures do not likely capture power/dependence as originally conceived. They appear confounded by positive dimensions of marital quality. Dependence, as measured here, played no consistently significant role in mediating the effects of resources and attitudes on housework contributions. Several resources had significant direct effects on housework contributions, and some effects were stronger for women.;It is recommended that future housework research must integrate qualitative and quantitative methods and focus on the reciprocal and interactive role of "perceived housework fairness" in the marital bargaining and renegotiation process.