Are All Egalitarian Relationships Created Equal? Routine Housework Task Sharing and Relationship Quality in Egalitarian Couples

• In Event: 3132 - Family and Work

Abstract

Because housework consists of numerous tasks, partners can arrive at an egalitarian division of household labor by sharing in the completion of each task or by dividing tasks up evenly between them. Conventional approaches to calculating housework equality utilizing partners’ proportionate shares, nevertheless, fail to account for this difference. Failure to differentiate between “task sharers” and “task dividers” likely masks significant heterogeneity in relationship quality among egalitarian couples, and differences compared to conventional couples. Using data on N = 1,019 married and cohabiting parents from the U.S. Marital and Relationship Survey (MARS) this study examines how the division of five routine housework tasks among egalitarian heterosexual partners is associated with respondents’ relationship quality as indicated by perceived equity, satisfaction with division of housework, and overall relationship satisfaction. Analyses demonstrate substantial variability in the sharing of tasks among egalitarian respondents. For both men and women, relationship quality is highest when all tasks are shared and declines as tasks are divvied. Yet, because conventional arrangements benefit men more than women, task sharing resulted in gender differences in relationship quality across conventional and egalitarian arrangements. The findings draw into question established meanings of gender egalitarianism.

Author

• Daniel L. Carlson, University of Utah