Gender, justice and domestic work: life course transitions and perceptions of fairness

Authors

  • Janeen Baxter University of Queensland
  • Michele Haynes University of Queensland
  • Mark Western University of Queensland
  • Belinda Hewitt University of Queensland

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14301/llcs.v4i1.218

Keywords:

fairness, housework, transitions

Abstract

This paper investigates changes in perceptions of housework fairness as men and women transition from cohabitation to marriage and experience the birth of a child. Using four waves of data from the Negotiating the Life Course project in Australia, we assess how marriage and parenthood alter perceptions of housework fairness. Consistent with previous research we find that the majority of men and women report that the division of labour at home is fair, despite women spending twice as much time on housework as men. Our results show no changes in perceptions of fairness in relation to marital transitions and only weak evidence of changes in relation to parenthood transitions. We conclude that perceptions of housework fairness are not based on an equal sharing of tasks, but are better understood in terms of equity and distributive justice.

Author Biographies

Janeen Baxter, University of Queensland

Australian Research Council Professorial Fellow in Sociology,

School of Social Science and Institute for Social Science Research

Michele Haynes, University of Queensland

Associate Professor and Program Leader, Research Methods and Social Statistics, Institute for Social Science Research

Mark Western, University of Queensland

Director, Institute for Social Science Research

Belinda Hewitt, University of Queensland

Senior Research Fellow, Employment and Education Program, Institute for Social Science Research

Downloads

Published

2013-01-07

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 1 (2013): Longitudinal and Life Course Studies

Section

Research Notes

License

Authors who published with Longitudinal and Life Course Studies Volumes 1–9 agreed to the following terms:

1. Authors retain copyright and grant the Journal right of first publication with the work, simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

2. Following first publication in this Journal, Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal, provided always that no charge is made for its use.

3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g. in institutional repositories or on their own website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.