Abstract

Mainstream US literature research commonly has identified four predictors explaining persistent inequalities in the division of household labour: the resources each partner brings to the relationship; the time they have available; the traditionalist or egalitarian character of their gender ideologies; the gendered meanings they derive from the performance of family work. Although each of these perspectives can contribute to understanding the determinants of processes favouring or hindering egalitarian sharing of housework, empirical findings also highlight some inconsistencies. After a summary of the major theoretical, methodological, and empirical characteristics of these perspectives, the paper analyses a number of key conceptual contributions from discursive psychology and that may help explain the social psychological reproduction of unequal divisions of household labour and gendered power relations.