Housework Division Essay

1. Regardless of whether the family is a dual-income family or not marriage is about compromise. With compromise comes accommodation. One couple might have a partner who works longer hours or has a more strenuous job. To accommodate the partner, the other spouse might have to do more of the house work. One partner might have more responsibilities than another but in the end it should be equally shared. 2. Many years ago, when families would survive off of the land, both men and women were cooperative and worked along each others side. They both assumed laborious duties and shared tasks. Most would be divided by gender but the couple would actively participate both at home and work. Today, due to the dramatic increase in industrialization, a lot of the household tasks that mainly women did are no longer known as a â€Å"job†. With the female labor force increasing from 25% in 1940 to 61% in 2003, the term â€Å"housewife† and homemaker continue to be seldom used as a means of work. As female labor continues to rise each year, I believe that history will be repeating itself and therefore not only would sharing household responsibilities be the most viable option but a must. The text (Ch. 12 Pg.259) describes the â€Å"superwomen† as the dual-career wife who has unrealistic aspirations as she tries to manage being a wife, homemaker, and mother and balance her career on top of it all. She ends up feeling depressed and in the end is overwhelmed and reaches the point of exhaustion. Had she shared the responsibilities with her partner she might not have reach this point and this is why equity is important to marital satisfaction and the well being of the family. 3. Traditionally, in the past labor has always been divided by gender roles. The wives would cook, clean, wash dishes and the men would do most of the outside chores and repairs around the house. Today this continues to be how tasks are divided among most couples and will probably continue to be for the next few years. Mostly, because the inequality of task dividing is not defined as unfair by the wife and most of a labor they might enjoy doing or perhaps the husband might have a higher income and therefore feel as if they obligated to do more around the house. Whatever the reason being why inequality still persists in today’s society in regards to household work, one thing is for sure, there has been an enormous progress from earlier years in the sharing of household responsibilities which causes for greater potential in one day being closer to the ideal 50-50 in tasks sharing.