Data from 359 married, full-time employed women tested extent to which allocation of tasks and allocation of household management predict perceptions of fairness and conflict. Task and management allocation contributed independently and differently to perceptions of fairness and conflict about housework allocation. Unfairness was predicted by both…

This study explored the extent of negative attitudes toward success among housewives by means of objective and projective tests. Since married women with families constitute the majority of women over 25, the authors found it important to determine how prevalent negative attitudes toward personal achievement in women were among them. Fifty-three…

Full-time homemakers (N=55) and 63 full- or part-time outside job holders completed a questionnaire which assessed their level of satisfaction overall and with specific aspects of the homemaker work role or job. It was found that both full-time homemakers and job holders were quite satisfied with the homemaker work role. (Author)

Investigated husbands' contributions to household labor in first-married couples with biological children and in remarried couples with biological children only, stepchildren only, and both biological and stepchildren. Absolute and relative contributions to total household labor did not differ significantly across family types, but husbands in…

The number of male primary caregivers has increased as social change has reduced the availability of female family members to fulfill the caregiving role. This study examined the perceived and actual role of caregiver by older men, especially in homemaker activities, and how this aspect of the caregiving role is impacted by age. Subjects (N=74)…

Tested Kohn's theory that people who work in highly supervised, routinized occupations are likely to value obedience and conformity in marital and parental relationships. Findings from 244 couples revealed that working conditions were not strong predictors of division of household labor. Concludes that nontraditional gender role values,…

Compares women defining themselves as retired with those defining themselves as housewives despite having worked outside the home. Examined variables are (1) work continuity, (2) occupation type, (3) work satisfaction, (4) number of years worked, (5) quitting age, and (6) full- versus part-time employment. (Author/CH)

This study examined the relationship of gender, sex role orientation, and work attitudes to the domestic division of labor in 141 working couples. Couples completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory and a questionnaire on the performance of household tasks. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) confirmed that working women performed a disproportionately larger…

Examined how both division of household labor and perceptions of its equity relate to spouses' reports of marital conflict and satisfaction in 656 working-class and middle-class dual-earner families. For middle-class wives, perceptions of equity had strongest effect on marital conflict. For working-class wives, higher proportion of traditionally…

To determine the nature of the job of homemaking for employed and non-employed homemakers and whether home economics teachers' perceptions of the job were in agreement with homemakers, card sort instruments, questionnaires, and personal interviews were administered to 32 home economics teachers and 20 employed and 20 non-employed mothers of a…

Examined how assessments of role behavior in the family and relative deprivation in work-family situations were linked with depression among homemakers (N=130) and employed married women (N=135). Results showed that negative evaluations of role behavior in the family were more depressing to homemakers than to employed women. (NRB)

Presents a model of role conflict coping behavior that is based on three levels in the role process: structural role definition, personal role redefinition, and reactive role behavior. Using the results of a survey of college educated women, 16 behavioral strategies are identified and classified. The relationship between coping behavior and…

An earlier version of this paper was published in The International Mental Health Newsletter, v7 n4 Winter, 1965.

A content analysis of women's roles in "McCalls Magazine" in 1964 and 1974 revealed two profiles of a publication that has been dispensing advice and entertainment for wives and mothers since 1876. The recent women's movement first attracted media coverage around 1968, and a study of "McCalls" before and after this time showed…