The division of household labour among dual-earning couples

The focus of this study is the gendered division of household labour for women and men in dual-earning couples. The divergent hypotheses of two competing theoretical models--the social-structural approach and Becker's human capital theory--are tested. Using multiple regression analysis, we examine the variance in contribution to both housework and child care among women and among men. We also conduct an exploratory two-way interaction analysis involving gender and each of our independent variables. In addition to social-structural factors, such as the percentage female in respondents' occupation, we consider the effect of gender ideology and power relations in the division of household labour. While we find some support for each theoretical perspective, we conclude that the social-structural factors considered here do not provide overwhelming evidence for either model. Instead, our results point to the need for research that examines other social-structural factors and the power relations implicit in the current work-family structure. For example, we find that men who work in female-dominated occupations are more involved in housework than other men; and women who have decision-making power with regard to the spending of the family income do less housework. This thesis lends support to the view that future research should consider the interconnections among structure, ideology and power in the relationship between paid and domestic work.