Reclaiming the ‘Housewife’?

Summary

This article addresses the contention that some research on household work in non-heterosexual households has been characterized by a tendency to ‘empty’ such households of any processes and practices associated with gendering. As a result, lesbians, particularly in co-residing, couple households, have been seen as having more egalitarian, democratic divisions of household labour. This article takes issue with such analyses and argues for the central importance of gender in constituting the organization of work in and between lesbians’ households and kin networks. In particular, it addresses the contention that although gender difference may be less obvious in lesbian household arrangements, the issue of who gender is done for assumes key importance. The ways in which lesbians may or may not be constituted as ‘housewives’ are then unpacked and evaluated in terms of women's relationships to ‘family’ and in terms of ‘housewife’ as task-doer. Finally, a plea for the reclamation of the ‘housewife,’ and the associated need to place gender center-stage, is made evident.