The Decline of the Male Breadwinner and Persistence of the Female Carer: Exposure, Interests, and Micro–Macro Interactions

Abstract

Although female labor force participation is rising across the world, men's share of unpaid care work has not increased commensurately. Why has there been a major change in one domain of gender relations yet marked continuity in another? This article tries to answer this question by doing three slightly unusual things. It uses the same theoretical concepts (exposure and interests) to analyze change and continuity across different domains of gender relations. It examines long-term processes of social change through ethnographic (rather than social survey) data from Zambia. Additionally, it explores commonalities in the Global North and South—thereby bringing together silos of knowledge. The argument is that flexibility in gender divisions of labor increases when there is a shift in both interests and exposure. This has occurred in the case of paid work: A decline in men's incomes and job security has led many to regard women's employment as advantageous. The resulting critical mass of women performing socially valued, masculine roles seems to have undermined gender ideologies, relating to competence and status—fostering a positive feedback loop. Few people are exposed to men sharing care work, however, as this mostly occurs in private spaces. Accordingly, many assume that such practices are neither common nor socially accepted. These norm perceptions furnish men with self-interested reasons to shun housework. These micro- and macrolevel interactions perpetuate asymmetric flexibility in gender divisions of labor.

尽管全球女性劳动力正在增加，但男性对于不给薪的照护工作之分担却未相对增加。为什麽在性别关係的一个范畴中有了巨大的改变，在另一个范畴中却显示出持续性呢？本文试着藉由从事三件稍微不寻常的事来回答上述问题。本文运用相同的理论概念（显露与利益）来分析不同性别关係范畴中的改变与持续。本文透过来自赞比亚的民族志（而非社会调查）数据来检视社会变迁的长期过程。此外，本文探讨全球北方与南方的相同性——藉此汇集知识的孤岛。本文主张，当利益与显露同时有了转换时，性别劳动分工的弹性便会增加。而这发生在给薪工作的案例中：男性所得和工作安全的降低，使得许多人将女性就业视为具有优势。其所造成的展演社会所重视的男性气概角色的女性达到了临界值，似乎降低了有关能力和身份的性别意识形态——打造了正向的回馈循环。但鲜少有人接触分担照护工作的男性，因其大部份发生于私领域中。于是，许多人预设此般行为不但不常见，更不被社会所接受。这些规范认知，提供了男性迴避家务工作的自利理由。这些微观与巨观的互动，让性别劳动分工中的不对称弹性得以续存。

Aunque la participación de la fuerza laboral femenina está aumentando en todo el mundo, la cuota de los varones en labores hogareñas no remuneradas no se ha incrementado proporcionalmente. ¿Por qué ha ocurrido un cambio notable en un sector de las relaciones de género en tanto se mantiene una marcada continuidad en el otro? Este artículo trata de responder a esta pregunta haciendo tres cosas ligeramente inusuales. Se utilizan los mismos conceptos teóricos (exposición e intereses) para analizar el cambio y la continuidad a través de diferentes dominios de las relaciones de género. Más que basándose en estudios sociales, el artículo examina en Zambia procesos de cambio social a largo término por medio de datos demográficos. Adicionalmente, se exploran características compartidas en el Norte Global y en el Sur Global—para juntar de esa manera silos de conocimiento. El argumento es que la flexibilidad de las divisiones de trabajo por género se incrementa cuando se presenta un cambio de intereses y exposición. Esto ha ocurrido en el caso del trabajo remunerado: Una reducción en los ingresos y seguridad en el trabajo de los varones ha llevado a muchos a considerar como ventajoso el empleo de las mujeres. La masa crítica resultante de mujeres que se ocupan desempeñando papeles masculinos socialmente valiosos parece haber socavado ideologías de género relacionadas con competencia y estatus—estimulando una vuelta positiva de retroalimentación. Sin embargo, muy poca gente puede constatar qué tanto trabajo familiar no remunerado comparten los varones por cuanto esto generalmente ocurre en espacios privados. En consecuencia, muchos asumen que tales prácticas no son ni comunes ni socialmente aceptadas. Percepciones normativas de este tipo proveen a los varones con razones acomodadas a su propio interés para rehuir el trabajo doméstico. Estas interacciones a niveles micro y macro perpetúan la flexibilidad asimétrica de las divisiones del trabajo por género.

Key Words:

• care work
• gender
• gender divisions of labor
• paid work
• sub-Saharan Africa

关键词：:

• 照护工作，性别，性别劳动分工，给薪工作，撒哈拉以南的非洲。

Palabras clave:

• trabajo social
• género
• divisiones laborales por género
• trabajo remunerado
• África subsahariana

Acknowledgments

I am extremely grateful to my Zambian participants, who enabled my research, supported my Bemba language acquisition, shared their reflections with me, cared for me in their homes and workplaces, and provided useful comments on earlier drafts. This article has also benefited from incredibly constructive, encouraging, and detailed comments from tremendous anonymous reviewers, Katherine Brickell, Sylvia Chant, Nick Day, Paula England, Kathleen Gerson, Gerry Mackie, and Barbara Risman. Any deficits are clearly mine.

Funding

This research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, grant number ES/H013210/1.

Notes

1. These analytical differences tend to be obfuscated. Geographers of work and gender sometimes equivocate between the two, interchangeably referring to cultural expectations (termed social obligations, social pressure, or normative constraints) and internalized ideologies (accepted gender norms and gender ideology; Lee 2002; McDowell et al. 2005, 448, 454, 457; Brickell and Chant 2010; Brickell 2014; Ansell, Tsoeu, and Hajdu 2015).

2. In urban and periurban Kitwe, care work is mostly undertaken indoors or within walled gardens. Fences, hedges, and breeze blocks obscure public exposure to private practices. The ultrapoor in illegal settlements do not have fences, however.

3. This might occur if there is an economic incentive for men to share care work. Higher demand for low-skilled, female labor in Hanoi's factories and informal economy has shifted perceived interests. Rural women are migrating to urban areas, leaving fathers to perform unpaid care work. “All because of economics!” explained Hien, a forty-six-year-old father. Such flexibility in gender divisions of labor is temporary, though, not enduring after return migration (Thao 2014).

4. My rural–urban comparative ethnography of gender ideologies and practices underscores the main argument in this article: the importance of exposure to flexibility in gender divisions of labor. Readers interested in this analysis might read Evans (2016).

5. Although see Evans (2015b) for a discussion of these data.

6. As will be elaborated on, there is a low supply of men seeking marriage but high demand from women.

7. Readers interested in the effectiveness of gender sensitization might wish to consult Evans (2015a).

8. This is not to present a dichotomous conceptualization of public and private spaces or disregard interconnections (as highlighted by Drummond 2000; Blunt and Dowling 2006, 19) but rather to show that some ideas do not permeate from private to public spaces.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alice Evans

ALICE EVANS is a Lecturer in Human Geography in the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge, Downing Place, Cambridge CB2 3EN, UK. E-mail: [email protected]. She is interested in inequality and social change. Current projects include rural–urban differences in gender relations, the politicization of inequality, and the politics of policymaking and implementation in Zambia and Southeast Asia.