Using data from the National Survey of Families and Households, examined gender-based segregation of family labor, focusing on effects of time availability, family power, and gender role ideology. Found American couples exhibited highly sex-segregated family work patterns. (Author/ABL)

Compared time that cohabiting and married women and men spend doing housework. Analysis of data from 1987 National Survey of Families and Households revealed that marital status affected women's household labor time but not men's; married women spent significantly more time on housework than did cohabiting women. (Author/NB)

Used data from Panel Study of Income Dynamics to investigate process by which spouses allocate their labor between employment and housework. Findings indicated that both women's market and domestic labor were highly sensitive to family economy, whereas men's market labor was subject to macroeconomic structure and men's domestic labor was little…

This study examines factors related to the affective meanings that spouses and cohabitors attach to child care, baby care, and nine household chores. Gender is related to about a third of these task meanings. Gender also moderates the relationship between work and twelve task meanings. (Contains 35 references, 8 tables, and 1 appendix.) (BF)

Surveyed dual-employed couple to explore causes of satisfaction with and arguments over division of household labor. Found husbands more satisfied with equitable division; wives more satisfied with division favoring them. Wives were more content if husbands shared women's traditional chores. Spouses disagreed about how often they argued over…

Examined relationship of family life satisfaction to division of household work between men and women among married Black adults. Found women almost twice as likely as men to feel overworked by household work; people who felt overworked had lower levels of family life satisfaction. Found interactions among family life satisfaction, division of…

Compared amount of time dual-career husbands and wives spent in housework (total N=1,565) relative to their same-sex counterparts in other dual-earner and single-earner households (N=1,565). Found that dual-career couples were not more egalitarian than other couples in allocation of time to household labor. Discusses consequences for extent of…

Used data from national survey of 741 men and 964 women to examine life-cycle variations in satisfaction with division of household labor and relationship between satisfaction with division of household labor and marital quality. Satisfaction with division of labor was more important in explaining marital happiness and conflict than were age,…

Couples (N=336) were interviewed for their perceptions of the fairness of their own and their spouses's efforts in the family roles of cooking, housekeeping, provider, companion, and parent. Perceived equity in family roles tended to increase over the life cycle for both husbands and wives, but some differences existed. (Author)

Data from the 1988 National Survey of Families and Households indicate that men's housework and child-rearing efforts are powerful determinants of wives' and husbands' perceptions of the fairness of the division of household chores. Wives' employment hours have no effect on husbands' fairness perceptions but are significantly related to wives'…

Investigated the extent to which Swedish couples (N=128) share domestic tasks using a mail survey. Suggests Swedish couples shared household chores more evenly than American couples. Results indicated variables measuring social exchange theory, family life-cycle stage, and socialization had the greatest influence on role sharing behavior.…

Analyzed the housework time of 1,618 White couples. Found that the salience of work and family roles in the family life cycle affected the respective amounts of time that spouses allocated to household labor. Women spent less time in housework before and after childbearing stages, and husbands spent more time in domestic labor during periods of…

Followed a sample of young, married couples who recorded daily their housework tasks and levels of stress. Results showed that stress inside and outside the home influenced the amount of housework done. Concludes that housework time arises from a dynamic decision-making process sensitive to the social environment. (RJM)