Gender, Entitlement, and the Distribution of Family Labor

Abstract

Research is reviewed demonstrating that although wives contribute a disproportionate share of the unpaid labor of the family (e.g., housework and childcare) compared to their husbands, they nonetheless report relative contentment with this unequal distribution. It is argued that wives' paradoxical contentment can be understood by considering men's and women's sense of personal entitlement with regard to what they should put into and receive from marriage in the domain of family work. Gender differences in entitlement are hypothesized to result from societal norms regarding women's and men's roles within the family, comparison processes, and justifications that legitimize an unequal division of family labor.