Men Prefer Breadwinning to Housework…
Thebaud, S. (2010). Masculinity, Bargaining, and Breadwinning: Understanding Men’s Housework in the Cultural Context of Paid Work Gender & Society, 24 (3), 330-354 DOI: 10.1177/0891243210369105
Men do not do housework, as best they can help it (Thebaud, 2010, p.330). Most of us accept that assertion as (perhaps begrudgingly) true. In fact, Connell (1995), amongst others, has argued that the concept of the male breadwinner role in the external labour market remains strong, even as more women enter that market (2010, p.332). And here, Thebaud (2010) argues that no matter what ‘the level (and direction) of income inequity between men and women’, women still end up doing ‘the majority of housework’ (p.333). It would seem that men cling to that masculine ideal of sole breadwinner even as its reality subsides into history. Proving that no one ever really does willingly concede power without a bayonet shoved up their arse, at home, housework is still conceived of and practiced as the primary province of women.
How a stereotype staggers…
Interestingly, men who do less paid work than their female partners are even less likely to do housework than the average Joe (2010, p.33). Gender is in part about proving masculine ideals correct and so, it is expected that men whose masculinity is under threat would try extra hard to reassert a traditional division of labour. So strong is this pressure on men to perform at work while slacking off at home that Thebaud (2010) reports that men who fuck it up in the external labour market are much more likely than their commercially astute brothers to plunge off the twig (p.335). It is in the external labour market, after all, where men demonstrate their worth through paid work and ‘good income’ (2010, p.336). The greater value attached to paid work, it would seem, the greater resistance men might have to picking up a tea towel or putting on a full load.
So what did Thebaud (2010) find through her research…?
That yes, indeed, ‘gendered expectations [do] play a larger role in men’s contributions to housework in contexts where cultural norms strongly endorse paid work and earning a high income’ (2010, p.349). So, no matter what other considerations might be brought to bear, it is ‘the ongoing pressure for men to live up to breadwinning expectations’ (2010, p.349) that prevents them from pushing around the vacuum cleaner at home. I am not rattled in the slightest by this revelation. In short, as Thebaud (2010) so deftly put it, ‘breadwinning remains optional for women, but not for men’ (p.350). Housework, conversely, remains an un-masculine pursuit best left to women (2010, p.350). Getting some balance here will not only require men to actually learn how to make the bed they sleep in but for the lionised status of paid work in the external labour market to be promptly dethroned (2010, p.350)…
Update: Of course, the amount of time (quality or housework) that many families in Australia can spend together is quickly eroding, due to increasing work hours (see link, below) and poor infrastructure (eg. crumbling, archaic public transport systems that stretch out commuting time to and from work)…
Blah! Blah! Blah!