This article explores how gender norms rooted in culture and religion influence gender inequality among Malay couples in Malaysia. Studies on the unbalanced division of unpaid domestic work are pivotal because they negatively affect women’s economic status, well-being and life. Many studies have indicated that gender inequality in the division of household labour persists even after accounting for paid work time and resources, suggesting that gender norms lead to the unequal division in unpaid domestic work. By using gender perspective as the theoretical perspective, this study explores how men and women behave according to cultural and religious defined gender roles and are expected to behave as such. In this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine Malay couples in Malaysia. The study suggests that women shoulder a disproportionate amount of housework and childcare due to the cultural and religious gender norms that foster the prescribed roles, emphasising men’s role as the primary breadwinners and women’s role as the homemakers. This study highlights that gender norms rooted in culture and religion plays vital roles in creating gender inequality among Malay couples. Moreover, this study adds support to the gender perspective that not only gender role ideology matter, but also highlights that religiosity matters when accounting for gender norms in Malay society. This study implies that recognising the importance of cultural and religious gender norms around domestic work as women’s work is crucial in narrowing the gender gap in unpaid domestic work.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected how we spend our time in the workplace and at home. Moreover, it caused employed couples to simultaneously work from home and deal with unpaid work due to Malaysia’s Movement Control Order (MCO). What happens to housework and childcare responsibilities when women and men are required to work from home due to an abrupt lockdown? Who is doing the housework and childcare? Who should be responsible for unpaid domestic work? What are the factors that affect men’s share in housework and childcare? This paper reports the early results of an online survey conducted on Malaysian men and women during the nationwide imposed lockdown in May 2020. In addition, it discusses how the pandemic affected unpaid housework and childcare time and responsibilities in Malaysia. The findings suggest that women spend more time on housework and childcare than men and are responsible for most unpaid domestic work during COVID-19. These findings are consistent with those obtained before the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings also suggest that the time availability perspective affects men’s share in housework and that the relative resources perspective affects their share in childcare during COVID-19. Overall, the results call for policy attention to the factors that narrow gender inequality in unpaid domestic work.

Gendered division of household labour is a social issue facing many countries. However, there is limited available research on this issue in Malaysian context. Scholars raise the possibility that differences across racial and ethnic groups are due to differences in historical experiences and cultural background, which may condition the symbolic meanings of daily activities. This possibility remains under-researched in Malaysia. This study examines the gendered experiences of division of household labour among Malay and Chinese couples in Malaysia and reasons given for it. A qualitative semi-structured interview was conducted with 30 respondents (18 women and 12 men) in Malaysia. The respondents consist of 15 Malays and 15 Chinese. The interview findings suggest there are three themes emerged related to the familial influences on couples' domestic behaviours: (1) the way female interviewees see their father's and brothers' attitude towards housework influencing their expectation of their spouse, (2) the way female interviewees see their mother's attitude towards housework influencing their own attitudes, and (3) the way male interviewees were expected by their mothers to engage in housework. These findings suggest that parents are influential in shaping their children's attitudes and therefore their contribution to housework tasks after they form their own families. It also indicates the importance of ethnic identity in influencing the way couple engage in and share housework. This study adds insight to the complexities of the factors that may allow couples to move towards a more equal division of household labour.