The Orientation Toward Domestic Labor Questionnaire: Exploring dual-earner wives' sense of fairness about family work.

Abstract

This study explored the psychometric properties of the Orientation Toward Domestic Labor Questionnaire (ODL-Q) with a sample of 622 dual-earner wives. Adequate internal consistency reliability was obtained for most of the constructs in the ODL-Q. In addition, construct validity for the ODL-Q was provided with multiple regression and discriminant analyses of the constructs' relationships to wives' sense of fairness about family work. The ODL-Q scales accounted for 57% of the variance in wives' sense of fairness. Effective communication about domestic labor (expressions of appreciation, sympathetic listening, mutual decision making) was by far the most powerful predictor and discriminator of fairness. Further validity was demonstrated in a cluster analysis identifying 3 groups of dual-earner wives suggested by A. Hochschild's (1989) qualitative study of family work. Implications for the construction of gender through domestic labor are discussed. Family researchers recently have been puzzled by consistent empirical findings that although dual-earner wives do two to three times the amount of domestic work their husbands do, less than one third of wives report the division of daily family work as unfair (

Desigualdades na divisão do trabalho familiar, sentimento de justiça e processos de comparação social

“…Elas colocam normas rígidas ao trabalho familiar, dirigem, criticam o trabalho dos seus maridos e são prontas a aceitar as justificações que os homens apresentam para não contribuir para as tarefas familiares (Hawkins, Marshall, & Allen, 1998). Nesta perspectiva, o trabalho familiar é considerado como uma fonte de poder e não como a consequência de uma falta de poder (Kranichfeld, 1987) e podemos inferir que o sentimento de justiça no que respeita à divisão do poder familiar também está baseado em expectativas associadas aos papéis familiares tradicionais (ver Poeschl, 2007, para uma revisão da literatura sobre o poder na família).…”

“…No que respeita ao que as mulheres esperam, querem e valorizam, os estudos mostram que as mulheres retiram mais prazer do que os homens da execução das tarefas domésticas (Grote, Naylor, & Clark, 2002;Poeschl, Múrias, Costa, & Silva, 2001/2002. Ora, o prazer que as mulheres retiram da execução do trabalho familiar parece ser um bom preditor da percepção de que a divisão do trabalho doméstico é justa, sendo o sentimento de competência e de valorização em função dessa competência o melhor preditor da percepção da justiça pelas mulheres (Grote, Naylor, & Clark, 2002;Hawkins, Marshall, & Allen, 1998).…”

Perceived Fairness and Satisfaction with the Division of Housework Among Dual-Earner Couples in Italy

“…A study dealing explicitly with Thompson's theory is Hawkins et al's research (1995), further replicated in a later study (Hawkins et al, 1998 (Freudenthaler & Mikula, 1998;Himsel & Goldberg, 2003;Kluwer et al, 2002) also employed Thompson's framework: all found support for the effects of various comparison referents and justifications on perceived fairness. By contrast, Gager (1998) adopted a qualitative approach to explore spouses' use of justifications and to describe the specific valued aspects of housework and comparison referents among 25 dual-earner couples.…”

“…In previous research specifically addressing the operationalization of Thompson's concepts (see above), four out of five studies focused on small samples of dual-earner couples (Freudenthaler & Mikula, 1998;Hawkins et al, 1998;Hawkins et al, 1995;Himsel & Goldberg, 2003). In other studies dealing with the general topic of perceived fairness, the target population was either dual-earner or all couples; in some cases analyses were kept separated for employed and non employed women (Blair & Johnson, 1992).…”

Strengthening Family Connections with Letters of Gratitude in the Family Science Classroom

“…The effect is so strong that even among couples with an acknowledged divide (such as unequal division of domestic labor), expression of gratitude dissipated negative feelings (Klumb, Hoppmann, & Staats, 2006). Some describe gratitude as the most powerful variable for improving couple relationships when compared to factors such as effective communication, domestic labor, or listening (Hawkins, Marshall, & Allen, 1998). Interpersonal connection is what makes the family strengths perspective the foundation of the letters of gratitude assignment this article presents.…”