Working-Class Job Loss, Gender, and the Negotiation of Household Labor

Abstract

Scholars see the gendered division of household labor as a stronghold of gender inequality.We explore changes in household labor and gender relations when conservative, workingclass families experience employment disruptions. Using data from 49 qualitative interviews conducted with men and women following the forced unemployment of breadwinning husbands, we observe some change in gendered household labor but conclude that a significant degendering of housework is thwarted by institutional-, interactive-, and individual-level processes. At the institutional level, the lack of well-paying jobs and the persistent gendering of household tasks discourage change. At the individual level, challenges to gendered identities encourage a reinforcement of traditional gender ideologies. At the interactional level, women's responsibility for care work and the meaning of paid work for unemployed husbands forestall the adjustment of tasks.

Stay-at-Home Fathers

“…At the same time, more families have adopted a more egalitarian division of household labor (Bianchi, Robinson, & Milkie, 2007) and that may prepare some families for a nontraditional arrangement such as having an SAHF. However, the persistence of family responsibilities and norms of masculinity (Bianchi, Sayer, Milkie, & Robinson, 2012;Bittman, England, Sayer, Folbre, & Matheson, 2003;Brines, 1994;Greenstein, 2000;Legerski & Cornwall, 2010;Tichenor, 1999Tichenor, , 2005 suggest that the shift in work and care arrangements is likely to face opposition that would require a significant difference in earnings between wives and husbands to "push" families into an SAHF work and care arrangement.…”

From the Great Recession to Greater Gender Equality? Family Mobility and the Intersection of Race, Class, and Gender

“…Historically, this has meant that men have been able to mobilize their greater resources to prioritize their careers, including relocating the family for job opportunities (Baldridge, Eddleston, & Veiga, 2006;Bielby & Bielby, 1992;Hardill, Green, Dudleston, & Owen, 1997;Shauman & Noonan, 2006; but see Pixley, 2008). The recent recession provides a unique researchable moment, as more women are likely to be in positions of power vis-à-vis earnings (Legerski & Cornwall, 2010;Mattingly & Smith, 2010). As such, married individuals of various races and classes may now make different determinations about which spouse's career to prioritize and whether it would be logical to relocate their family for new employment opportunities.…”

Households’ responses to spousal job loss: ‘all change’ or ‘carry on as usual’?

“…Even where women do not have the same earning power as their partners, evidence suggests that the money they earn is vital to the economic survival of the household (Harkness et al, 1997). Despite this shift in the relative importance of men's and women's financial contributions to the household, research has consistently found that traditional ideologies of gendered labour persist (Forret et al, 2010;Legerski and Cornwall, 2010). Women's roles may have changed substantially to include both family and work but working women tend to experience this as a 'stalled revolution' where men's roles have changed relatively little, leaving women bearing the brunt of the additional work required to service family and job commitments (Hochschild, 2003).…”