Oriel Sullivan

Gender Convergence in Domestic Work: Discerning the Effects of Interactional and Institutional Barriers from Large-scale Data

Cross-national trends in paid and unpaid work time over the last 40 years reveal a slow and incomplete convergence of women’s and men’s work patterns. A simplistic extrapolation would indicate a 70—80 year process of gender convergence, with the year 2010 representing an approximate mid-point. However, in conformity with the expectations of gender theory, time use data show that gender segregation in domestic work is quite persistent over time. Women still do the bulk of routine housework and caring for family members while men have increased their contributions disproportionately to non-routine domestic work, suggesting that gender ideologies and the associated ‘doing’ of gender in interaction remain important features of the division of domestic labour. The effects of institutional barriers are also apparent, with differential changes in women’s proportional contribution to routine housework and caring activities related to different national policy clusters.

Changing Gender Practices within the Household A Theoretical Perspective

While recent emphasis has been placed on transformations of gender in the public sphere, changes in gender relations between heterosexual couples in the domestic sphere have been less fully developed in the theoretical literature. The author presents evidence for change at various levels, from the discursive to the quantitative. She outlines a theoretical framework for the analysis of such change based on the “doing gender” and gender consciousness perspectives, readdressed in the light of the new emphasis on discourses of reflexivity and intimacy. She argues for a conception of change that is slow and uneven, in which daily practices and interactions are linked to attitudes and discourse, perhaps over generations.

Time Waits for no (Wo)Man: An Investigation of the Gendered Experience of Domestic Time

Quite a lot is already known from the existing sociological literature about the overall time spent by women and men in different domestic tasks, but there is much less information available on more complex sociologically-relevant facets of the experience of time, such as the social context of activities, and the common combinations of different activities. In this paper I use time-use diary data to focus upon three important aspects of the gendered experience of time. These are the social context of domestic tasks in relation to their (gendered) patterns of management, the intensity or density of time-use involving combinations of different activities, and the fragmentation of leisure time according to which activities are responsible for interrupting it. Overall these analyses support the conclusion that womens time is not only more pressured in terms of the intensity of domestic tasks, but that the more enjoyable aspects of their time, such as leisure time, tend to be more fragmented than that of men.

Introducing data analysis for social scientists

Preface to the second editionAcknowledgementsPart one: The logic and language of social researchIntroducing data analysisThe logic of data analysisPart two: From data collection to computerPreparing the dataGetting to know the computerDOS, windows and SPSSPart three: Descriptive data analysis in social researchFrom computer to analysisdescribing single variablesUnivariate descriptive statistics using SPSSBivariate analysis for categoric variablesmeasures of associationBivariate analysis for interval level variablesregression and correlationPart four: Inferential data analysis in social researchFrom sample to populationthe idea of inferential statisticsTests of significance for categoric variablesPart five: Introduction to multivariate analysisGeneral linear modelsmultivariate analysisLongitudinal datatheir collection and analysisConcluding remarksAppendixGlossary ReferencesIndex.

Inconspicuous Consumption: Work-Rich, Time-Poor in the Liberal Market Economy

Addressing the relationship between consumption behaviour, leisure time and the market, we seek a solution to the problem of the maintenance of consumption expenditure in economies where leisure time is shortest for those who have the most to spend, a contradiction particularly characteristic of societies belonging to the politico-economic regime type identified as ‘liberal market’. In contrast to ideas of conspicuous consumption based on display, we present a concept of ‘inconspicuous consumption’ relating to an imagined future use of purchases already made. Expensive leisure goods that symbolize a wished-for self-identity or lifestyle are purchased by high-income earners with little leisure time. From the point of view of the production sector, the purpose is achieved and a sale is made. However, the purchased goods remain ‘in storage’at home as symbols of a potential but unrealized and, in the meantime, unrealizable future. We illustrate different modalities of the practices of inconspicuous consumption and distinguish it from other consumption practices.

Changing Differences by Educational Attainment in Fathers' Domestic Labour and Child Care

In understanding processes of change in family work, examining differences in the degree of change between different social groups (‘changing differences’) can be more informative than focusing either on overall changes or on cross-sectional differences by social group alone. British and US time-use data sets are used to examine 30-year changes in men’s contribution to domestic work and child care by differences in educational attainment. Changes are compared for fathers in dual-earner couples with different levels of education. The findings illustrate two contrasting changing differences: a ‘catch-up’ effect over time between fathers with different educational attainment in the case of domestic labour; and in the case of child care, a widening of the gap by education. The challenges posed by these changing differences for common structural explanations of change in family work are discussed.

The Division of Housework Among “Remarried” Couples

There are only a limited number of studies comparing housework among couples and individuals in different marital statuses, and the focus of attention has tended to be on married compared to cohabiting couples. This article focuses on differences between couples where one or more partner is remarried or recohabiting and those where both partners are in their first married or cohabiting relationships, using nationally representative survey data from Britain. It is shown in multivariate analysis that women in their second-plus partnerships contribute less in terms of their proportion of total housework time than women in their first partnerships. However, there is no effect for the mans number of previous partnerships or for current marital/cohabiting status. It is argued that the significant issue is interaction and negotiation with a subsequent partner in the light of experience gained from the breakdown of one or more previous married/cohabiting relationships.

Housing movements of the divorced and separated

Abstract The first section of the paper uses information from the 1976 Family Formation Survey to investigate the extent and pattern of the housing movements made by women at and subsequent to the breakdown of their marriages. Overall, half the women who had experienced breakdown left the marital home at breakdown, but this proportion varied with age, tenure, sharing status and whether or not there were children from the marriage. The Labour Force Survey of 1981 is then used to provide more detailed cross‐sectional information on the housing and household circumstances of divorced and legally separated men and women than is currently available from other official statistical sources. It is shown that the parental home is an extremely important source of housing for young manual‐class men whose marriages have broken down.

Fathers’ Changing Contributions to Child Care and Domestic Work in Very Low–Fertility Countries The Effect of Education

Comparing a cluster of European countries that have recently experienced very low fertility with other industrialized countries, we hypothesize a connection between fertility behavior and fathers’ increasing participation in unpaid work. Using cross-national time use data we find significant evidence of recent increases in the contribution of younger, more highly educated fathers to child care and core domestic work in very low–fertility countries that have recently experienced upturns in fertility. The pace of these increases exceeds that found in the comparison group of other industrialized countries. We interpret these findings as suggestive evidence for a process of cross-national social diffusion of more egalitarian domestic gender relations, in particular among more highly educated fathers, acting to facilitate a turnaround in the pattern of postponed and foregone fertility which has characterized lowest low– and very low–fertility countries.

Relational resources, gender consciousness and possibilities of change in marital relationships

Investigating the possibilities of change in marital relationships, we argue, involves examining the interplay of gender consciousness, relational resources and material circumstances in their concrete, interactional manifestations. The attempt to address this interface is grounded in the idea that understanding gender relations necessarily involves both institutional and interactional dimensions. While much research has been devoted to the influence of material or structural resources on indicators such as the domestic division of labour, relatively little direct attention has been given to the issue of differing ‘relational’ or interpersonal resources. We use a multi-method approach based on interviews with women in different occupations to analyse possibilities of change in marital communication and the domestic division of labour in relation both to womens material and to their relational resources. We conclude that a combination of increased gender consciousness and the development of particular inter-personal skills facilitates negotiation and change in the boundaries regulating both communication and the domestic division of labour within the marital relationship.