Beyond Housework: Understanding Gender Division of Care Work

While previous research has focused on the gender division of housework, this article extends the notion of unpaid work done in households to care work. Using the National Survey of Families and Households and the American Time Use Survey, the author explores the gendered nature of both child care and care after the elderly. Literature on gender division of household work is used to as a point of departure in the analysis. In particular, the exchange-bargaining and gender performance are evaluated using relative earnings as a measure of gender deviance. As care work differs from household work because it often involves the emotional component, the possibility that care work is not as gendered as housework is also tested. Implications for gender inequality are discussed.