Legal Recognition of Same‐Sex Relationships: New Possibilities for Research on the Role of Marriage Law in Household Labor Allocation

Abstract

Research comparing the relative significance of economic exchange theories and gender norms on parents' division of income‐producing and domestic responsibilities often fails to consider sufficiently the role that marriage may play. This article shows that, in the United States, numerous aspects of state and federal law relating to marriage encourage spouses to specialize in distinct breadwinning and caretaking roles. Same‐sex marriage offers new opportunities to assess the importance of marriage in household labor allocation decisions while controlling for gender. For any data gathered before June 2015, however, it may be distorting to characterize same‐sex couples as simply “married” or “unmarried”; rather, legal recognition during the past 10 years is better conceptualized as discrete bundles of rights and tracked accordingly. This article, written by a legal scholar, provides substantive legal analysis that is integral to developing a research agenda in this area.

Pink work: Same-sex marriage, employment and discrimination

“…Moreover, married couples in the U.S. can decide whether to file taxes jointly or separately. Overall, given the "marriage penalty" in the U.S. tax system (Widiss, 2016), any tax incentive following the legalization of SSM might have attenuated the positive impact estimated in Tables 1 and 2. There are instead three alternative reasons behind discrimination which could be reasonably behind the estimated positive effect of SSM. First, married individuals may have decided to start working more to save money and build a family later on.…”

Sexual‐ and Gender‐Minority Families: A 2010 to 2020 Decade in Review

“…Yet there are unique predictors of the division of labor within sexual‐minority couples, including work hours outside the home, time availability, and income inequality (Tornello et al, ; Widiss, ). It may be that even in sexual‐minority couples, child care and feminine‐typed tasks such as laundry are clustered together unequally (Goldberg, ; Goldberg et al, ).…”

As the states turned: Implications of the changing legal context of same-sex marriage on well-being

“…Because marriage is such a highly valued status in the U.S. (Cherlin, 2010), the legalization of same-sex marriage reflects an opportunity for a shift in public opinion regarding the perceived normality and acceptability of LGBTQ people (Willetts, 2011) who may now fit into the socially understood rubric of weddings, marriage, wives, husbands, and in-laws. The Obergefell vs. Hodges decision may also trigger a decline in marriage-related discrimination, as civil marriage confers numerous federal and state rights and protections to spouses including tax exemptions, social security benefits, and hospital visitation rights (Widiss, 2016).…”