Male Participation in Household Labor after Unemployment: Job Loss, Chores, and Changing Masculinity
Open Access
Author:
Joyce, Veronica C
Area of Honors:
Sociology
Degree:
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Sarah A Damaske, Thesis Supervisor Dr. Stacy Silver, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Household Labor Gender Ideologies Undoing Gender Doing Gender Class Men Chores Unemployment Masculinity Paid Labor Changes Pennsylvania
Abstract:
The purpose of this investigation is to understand the ways in which the division of household labor may change after men lose their jobs. To understand the ways in which men of different classes do and undo gender through household labor I analyzed transcriptions of 100 interviews with men and women in Pennsylvania, from the Inequality, Gender, and Unemployment study. I looked at the ways in which the division of household labor can be connected to men’s gender ideologies and whether or not their expressed ideology matched the actual division of labor. The modal category for men was reporting that they “helped” with certain chores or that they were the sole doer of a single chore. In contrast, the modal category for women who had lost jobs was reporting that they do most of the chores. I additionally found evidence that men redefine masculinity to include housework and are proud of what they take on even if it does not match the gender ideology which they expressed. Finally, the overall participation of men in household labor is lower than what would be expected based on their answers to “who should be most responsible for household labor?” Although the majority of men reported that men and women should be ideally equally responsible for paid labor and household work, in actuality, men reported doing far less than half of the household labor.
