Premium
DIVERSITY BUT NOT EQUALITY: DOMESTIC LABOUR IN COHABITING RELATIONSHIPS
Author(s) -
Lindsay Jo
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
australian journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.417
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1839-4655
pISSN - 0157-6321
DOI - 10.1002/j.1839-4655.1999.tb01081.x
Subject(s) - diversity (politics) , project commissioning , sociology , publishing , gender equality , inequality , gender studies , domestic work , demographic economics , political science , labour economics , economics , law , mathematical analysis , mathematics , anthropology , wage
This paper examines the domestic labour arrangements of cohabiting couples and the implications for gender equality. The discussion is based on a predominantly qualitative study of thirty young cohabiters. The men and women shared domestic labour in diverse ways but not equally, instead they used discursive strategies to avoid assessing whether their contributions were equal. The cohabiters expressed extremely egalitarian attitudes when asked general questions about society but equality is absent when they discuss their own relationships. I argue that the concept of equality is part of public discourse rather than a fundamental principle of cohabiting relationships.