‘The house belongs to both’: undoing the gendered division of housework

ABSTRACT

This article studies 28 dual-income Spanish childless couples who were undoing gender in routine domestic work. We understand ‘undoing gender’ as defined by Deutsch [(2007). Undoing gender. Gender & Society, 21, 106–127, p. 122]: ‘social interactions that reduce gender difference’. The dual-earner couples came from different socio-economic backgrounds and were interviewed in four different Spanish towns in 2011. The analysis shows that resources in a wide sense, time availability, external help, ideas about fairness, and complex gender attitudes are key interdependent factors that can weave together to form different configurations leading to a non-mainstream division of housework. All configurations were based on principles of gender equality: some couples found it fair to have a 50/50 division of domestic work, others a 50/50 division of all work (paid and unpaid); and a third group showed conflicts in practice. These couples’ ways of undoing gender illustrate the external, individual, and couple circumstances under which spouses are able to achieve a non-traditional construction of unpaid work.

RESUMEN

Este artículo estudia 28 parejas españolas de dos ingresos y sin hijos que están deshaciendo la división sexual de las tareas domésticas rutinarias. Entendemos ‘deshaciendo la división sexual’ en el sentido usado por Deutsch [(2007). Undoing gender. Gender & Society, 21, 106–127, p. 122]: ‘social interactions that reduce gender difference’. Las parejas de dos ingresos provienen de diferentes contextos socio-económicos y fueron entrevistadas en cuatro ciudades españolas en 2011. El análisis muestra que los recursos en un sentido amplio, la disponibilidad temporal, la ayuda externa, las ideas sobre equidad y las complejas actitudes de género son factores interdependientes y cruciales, que pueden enlazarse diferentemente para desembocar en configuraciones que crean repartos de las tareas domésticas menos tradicionales, a contracorriente de la mayoría. Todas las configuraciones se basan en principios sustentados en la igualdad de género: algunas parejas ven legítimo tener un reparto al 50/50 del trabajo doméstico, otras un reparto 50/50 de todo el trabajo (remunerado y no remunerado); un tercer grupo muestra conflictos en la práctica. Estas formas de revertir el género por parte de las parejas ilustran las circunstancias externas, individuales y de pareja, bajo las cuales las parejas son capaces de conseguir una construcción no-tradicional del trabajo no remunerado.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender equality
• domestic work
• division of labour
• families and work
• work-life balance

PALABRAS CLAVE:

• Igualdad de género
• tareas domésticas
• división del trabajo
• familias y trabajo
• conciliación de vida familiar y laboral

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the health workers and couples who made this study possible. We also thank the anonymous referees for their very constructive comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Teresa Jurado-Guerrero is a professor at the National University of Distance Education (UNED) in Madrid, Spain. She studied at Mannheim University, Germany, and Toulouse Le Mirail, France, and holds a Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the European University Institute (IUE, Italy). Currently, she co-directs an international research project on two-earner couples and the transition to their first child in Spain, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Sweden (http://www.transparent-project.com/info.html). She has recently published ‘Family and Welfare State Reorientation in Spain and Inertia in Italy from a European Perspective’ with Manuela Naldini, Population Review, 52(1), 2013.

Marta Domínguez-Folgueras is associate professor at the OSC, Sciences Po, in Paris, France. She studied at the University of Oviedo, Spain, and holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), Spain. Previously, she was an assistant professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain. She is also a member of the TransParent project and has recently published ‘Cohabitation in Spain: no longer a marginal path to family formation’ with Teresa Castro-Martín, Journal of Marriage and Family, 75(2), 2013.

Carmen Botía-Morillas is professor at the Pablo Olavide University in Seville, Spain. She studied at the University of Granada, Spain, and holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the Sevilla University (US), Spain. She is also a member of the TransParent project and has recently defended her thesis on ‘Mothering and Fathering in transition. Dynamics and tensions in gender relations in heterosexual non-traditional couples when caring for the first child’.

Patricia Amigot-Leache is professor at the Public University of Navarre, Spain. She studied at the University of the Basque Country (EHU), Spain, and holds a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the Autonomous University in Barcelona. She is also a member of the TransParent project and has published ‘On power, freedom and gender. A fruitful tension between Foucault and Feminism’ with Margot Pujal, Theory & Psychology, 19(5), 2009.

ORCID

Marta Domínguez-Folgueras http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2071-699X

Teresa Jurado-Guerrero http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8391-2229

Carmen Botía-Morillas http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2942-3202

Patricia Amigot-Leache http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0764-4784

Notes

1 The interviewees were reminded to give an estimate pre-pregnancy in those cases in which she was on leave due to pregnancy.

2 A non-traditional sharing of housework was also found among four couples where both earned high incomes (a net household income higher than €4500) and who externalized a large part of their housework (cleaning and ironing always and sometimes laundering), but it was decided to skip them from this analysis, since their undoing gender at the couple level is linked to a woman being paid for doing routine housework.

3 For unemployed people their previous positions are reported.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación under [grant number CSO2010-17811/SOCI]; the Instituto de la Mujer under [grant number Ref. 43/09]; the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas under [grant number Programa de ayudas a la investigación en Ciencia Política y Sociología, 2011]; and the Center for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences (CEACS) of the Juan March Institute (2009).