Domestic Labor and Marital Satisfaction: How Much or How Satisfied?

Stevens, Daphne Pedersen; Kiger, Gary; Mannon, Susan E.

doi:10.1300/j002v37n04_04

Cited by 36 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Both male and female respondents report higher levels of marital satisfaction when their partners increase their emotion work and expressiveness (Stevens et al, 2005). This suggests that the emotion work performance a spouse does may serve as an indicator of his/her investment in the relationship.…”

Section: Marital Happiness Marital Satisfaction and Marital Qualitymentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Marital satisfaction has also been found to be positively associated with men's and women's performance of emotion work, including expressions of affection and appreciation (Erickson, 1993;Stevens et al, 2005). Both male and female respondents report higher levels of marital satisfaction when their partners increase their emotion work and expressiveness (Stevens et al, 2005).…”

Section: Marital Happiness Marital Satisfaction and Marital Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Further, satisfaction with the division of household labor has been found to be a greater predictor of marital satisfaction across the life course than many other predictors, such as age, education, and women's employment status (Suitor, 1991). In addition, men are found to be more satisfied when they perform more and their partners perform less child care, and women are found to be more satisfied when their spouses undertake more childcare responsibilities (Stevens, Kiger, & Mannon, 2005).…”

Section: Marital Happiness Marital Satisfaction and Marital Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gender and the Division of Labor

Coltrane

Shih

2009

Handbook of Gender Research in Psychology

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This chapter focuses on the division of labor between women and men and the distinction commonly drawn between domestic work and paid work. Work performed directly in the service of familiesincluding housework and childcare -is often unacknowledged because of cultural assumptions that a wife or mother should do it in the privacy of the home. Paid work, on the other hand, is much more public and historically associated with men. Holding a job and earning a salary has been considered to be a husband's traditional family obligation, whereas tending to home and children traditionally has been considered a wife's primary obligation (even if she also works outside the home). Why do we make these gendered assumptions, and what impact do these ideals have on individuals and society? In this chapter we investigate these questions by examining how the concept of separate work and family spheres for men and women arose and by exploring how scholars have researched the division of household labor. Links Between Work and FamilyRosabeth Moss Kanter (1977) was one of the first scholars to point out that it is misleading to treat work and family as separate institutional spheres. She rejected popular beliefs about the separation of workplaces and families, and she called for an examination of the interconnections between the two and the study of how and why people make and sustain attachments to each. Today, most social scientists recognize and appreciate the numerous mutual influences between the workplace and the home (Jacobs & Gerson, 2004;Moen & Coltrane, 2004). Near the end of this chapter we summarize research in this tradition by focusing on some findings about spillover from work to family and from family to work.Although there are many different linkages between work and family, most researchers have focused on how jobs influence family life. For example, there are many studies of how economic resources and job conditions affect marital functioning, parenting practices, or mental and physical health. In general, longer employment hours, harsher working conditions, and lower wages are associated with more family and health problems, and closely regulated work environments are associated with more restrictive parenting practices. Other work-family studies are focused on the different strategies people use to coordinate market labor and household labor, who does the housework, or how people balance commitments between work and family. Most studies show that job demands have important impacts on families and individuals and that, despite substantial shifts in

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Section: Marital Happiness Marital Satisfaction and Marital Qualitymentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Marital Happiness Marital Satisfaction and Marital Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Marital Happiness Marital Satisfaction and Marital Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Gender and the Division of Labor

Coltrane

Shih

2009

Handbook of Gender Research in Psychology

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“…Here again, special attention is devoted to the household division of unpaid family work. For example, research shows that when men do more housework, wives’ perceptions of fairness and marital satisfaction tend to rise (Amato et al 2003; Stevens, Kiger, and Mannon 2005) and couples experience less marital conflict (Coltrane 2000). 1 Other research shows that U.S. couples who have more equal divisions of labor are less likely to divorce than are couples where one partner specializes in breadwinning and the other partner specializes in family work (Cooke 2006).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Egalitarianism, Housework, and Sexual Frequency in Marriage

2013

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Changes in the nature of marriage have spurred a debate about the consequences of shifts to more egalitarian relationships, and media interest in the debate has crystallized around claims that men who participate in housework get more sex. However, little systematic or representative research supports the claim that women, in essence, exchange sex for men’s participation in housework. Although research and theory support the expectation that egalitarian marriages are higher quality, other studies underscore the ongoing importance of traditional gender behavior and gender display in marriage. Using data from Wave II of the National Survey of Families and Households, this study investigates the links between men’s participation in core (traditionally female) and non-core (traditionally male) household tasks and sexual frequency. Results show that both husbands and wives in couples with more traditional housework arrangements report higher sexual frequency, suggesting the importance of gender display rather than marital exchange for sex between heterosexual married partners.

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“…The same question and response formats were used with respect to childcare arrangements. Note that we use domestic work satisfaction measures rather than actual hours spent in domestic work since evidence suggests that perceptions matter more than the actual division of domestic labor for family life satisfaction (Stevens, Kiger, & Mannon, 2005).…”

Section: Marriage and Family Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Work-Family Identities and Work-Family Conflicts

Mannon

Minnotte

Brower

2007

Marriage & Family Review

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Using survey data from Utah, we examine the direct and indirect effects of individuals' identification with work and family on work-to-family and family-to-work conflict. Our analysis uncovers two notable indirect effects of family identity. For men, identification with the family is associated with job flexibility, which is associated with a decrease in work-to-family conflict. For women, identification with the family is associated with housework satisfaction, which is associated with a decrease in family-to-work conflict. These indirect effects suggest Susan E. that family identity may play some role in reducing work-family conflict, albeit in different ways for men and women.

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Domestic Labor and Marital Satisfaction: How Much or How Satisfied?

Cited by 36 publications

References 29 publications

Gender and the Division of Labor

Gender and the Division of Labor

Egalitarianism, Housework, and Sexual Frequency in Marriage

Work-Family Identities and Work-Family Conflicts

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