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35 - Cultural Considerations in the Division of Labor

from Part VII - Family Perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2018

By
Lyn Craig  and
Ruth Habgood
Edited by
Kristen M. Shockley ,
Winny Shen  and
Ryan C. Johnson
Kristen M. Shockley
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
Winny Shen
Affiliation:
University of Waterloo, Ontario
Ryan C. Johnson
Affiliation:
Ohio University
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Summary

When we think about work and labor, the spotlight is usually on paid employment. But also essential is non-market, or unpaid, work: housework, home maintenance, and looking after children and elders as well as family members who are sick or have a disability. These latter activities are not rest or leisure. They are not hobbies. They are work. They require time and effort, they have productive outcomes, and they constrain time in other activities. Therefore, how market and non-market work is divided by gender is a critical social issue. This chapter examines what we have discovered over the past few decades about the ubiquity, variety, and malleability of gender division of paid and unpaid work. Drawing on comparative time use studies, it demonstrates how individual characteristics, family and workplace arrangements, national contexts, and government polices influence the gendered work and family care patterns that we observe.
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of the Global Work–Family Interface , pp. 646 - 660
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

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