Housework in pair relations: strategies of coping with the division of household labor - findings from Germany

Abstract

"In this paper attention is drawn on a so far little investigated area of the societal change of gender relations and family structures, namely housework-related everyday life practices in intimate relationships. The results presented here stem from a research project on the division of household labor within different forms of unions: married and unmarried couples, spouses with one or with two separate households and with or without children. For the investigation reported here I used qualitative analyses of interviews and additional information from a standardized questionaire. My objective is to show how coping with housework - related discrepancies may or may not lead to a change of the labor division in the household. Strategies of coping are examined partners employ in reaction to stress caused by dissatisfaction with the perceived sharing of housework. That means, theoretically, housework is considered as a factor that causes stress that individuals have to cope with. This micro-analysis of individual behavior and of pair interaction can contribute an answer on the question why - on the macro-level - the traditional division of household labor in Germany has remained remarkably stable during the last decades." (excerpt)