Doing Housework, Redoing Gender: Queer Couples Negotiate the Household Division of Labor

Abstract

Drawing on interviews with 30 queer participants who are currently cohabitating with a partner, we examine accounts of the negotiation of the household division of labor. We expand the scope of previous research to assess housework and child care practices among both sexual and gender minorities. We find that queer couples’ accounts of their arrangements are shaped by time availability and personal preferences as well as broader social context, such as labor force participation and citizenship. We suggest the division of domestic labor in these queer couples represents an opportunity for redoing gender through challenging normative gender roles and creating alternatives for how gender shapes social life.

KEYWORDS:

• housework
• doing gender
• gay
• lesbian
• bisexual
• pansexual
• queer
• transgender
• non-binary

Notes

¹In one case, both partners were interviewed. Only one of them was included in this study. In addition, two participants with cohabitating partners were inadvertently not asked the questions about the domestic division of labor and so these participants were not included in the study.

²Information on the Web-based qualitative coding software Dedoose can be found at www.dedoose.com.

³Among participants who are able to give a numerical estimate of the percentage of the household labor they performed, overall, the average percentage of housework done by the partner doing more housework is 66%. In cisgender female-cisgender female couples, the average share of household labor for the partner that does more housework is 65%; in couples where one or both partners identifies as transgender or non-binary, the partner doing more housework does 67%; in cisgender male-cisgender male couples, the partner doing more housework does 72%.