Partner Characteristics and Perceptions of Responsibility for Housework and Child Care

Abstract

Objective: This study examines how partner characteristics (i.e., relative income, gender, gender expression) causally affect perceptions of responsibility for housework and child care in heterosexual and same‐sex couples. Background: Although past research has frequently investigated how couples divide chores and child‐care tasks, few studies have examined Americans' normative beliefs about the division of household labor. This is an important oversight because partner characteristics are often correlated within individuals (e.g., heterosexual women are disproportionately lower earning), thus blurring how each characteristic causes a partner to be seen as responsible for tasks. Method: The authors conducted a nationally representative survey experiment (N = 1,025). Respondents were randomly assigned to a vignette condition describing either a heterosexual or same‐sex couple. After viewing the vignette, respondents were asked to assign chores and child‐care tasks based on partners' relative income, gender, and gender expression. Results: In same‐sex couples, partners' gender expression had moderate effects on respondents' chore and child‐care assignments. In heterosexual couples, however, the respondents relied overwhelmingly on gender differences to determine who should be doing household tasks. Relative income had little effect across sexual orientation groups, aside from dictating which partner should exit the workforce to become a stay‐at‐home parent. Conclusion: Gender is the primary factor that drives Americans' normative beliefs about housework and child care.

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

“…The division of household labor among cisgender heterosexual couples has been a major area of scholarly work for decades. Research on SGM couples, most notably same‐sex couples, calls to question theory on heterosexual couples' division of labor that rely on gendered assumptions of men and women as opposites (Doan & Quadlin, ; Geist & Ruppanner, ). Overall, research confirms that sexual‐minority couples—especially and perhaps exclusively White gay and lesbian couples—are more likely to have an egalitarian household division of labor than heterosexual couples; this is true when comparing groups with and without children (for a review, see Goldberg, ; Goldberg, Smith, & Perry‐Jenkins, ; Gotta et al, ; Tornello, Sonnenberg, & Patterson, ).…”

“…Overall, research confirms that sexual‐minority couples—especially and perhaps exclusively White gay and lesbian couples—are more likely to have an egalitarian household division of labor than heterosexual couples; this is true when comparing groups with and without children (for a review, see Goldberg, ; Goldberg, Smith, & Perry‐Jenkins, ; Gotta et al, ; Tornello, Sonnenberg, & Patterson, ). Gendered housework theory suggests that partners in sexual‐minority couples are less reliant on traditional gendered norms, are more likely to have similar housework preferences, and are more likely to be dually employed outside the home (Doan & Quadlin, ).…”

Gender Flexibility, But Not Equality: Young Adults' Division of Labor Preferences

“…D ESPITE convergence in men's and women's time spent in paid and unpaid labor, contemporary family life continues to be unequal and highly gendered (Damaske 2011;Doan and Quadlin 2019;England 2010;Jacobs and Gerson 2005;Sayer 2005). One dominant explanation for continued inequality in the private sphere is that institutional constraints, such as stagnant workplace policies, have not kept pace with changing preferences for gender equality at home and at work (Cotter, Hermsen, and Vanneman 2011;Jacobs and Gerson 2016;Pedulla and Thébaud 2015;Scarborough, Sin, and Risman 2018;Thébaud and Halcomb 2019).…”

Priming Mediated Vicarious Intergroup Contact: How Narrative Focus Influences Attitude Changes Toward Gay People, Same-Sex Family, and Social Dominance

“…One likely explanation is that exposure to this mainstream media depiction of a gay couple might reaffirm people's existing prejudice that gay men's unions relatively lack the partner characteristics of responsibility for the traditional family and parenting functions. Research shows that people believe there are more distinct and salient gender roles-the "male" and "female" gendered division of household labor-in lesbian relationships than in gay relationships (Doan & Quadlin, 2018). Correspondingly, another research has found that same-sex parenting by lesbian couples is more likely to be positively perceived and endorsed than samesex parenting by gay couples (Webb, Chonody, & Kavanagh, 2017).…”