Domestic Division of Labor

Domestic labor refers to the unpaid caring and housework tasks undertaken within households to provide for the needs of family and other household members. Activities in Western societies typically encompass a range of tasks such as cooking, cleaning, laundry, gardening, pet care, and household repairs, in addition to child care and obtaining goods and services. This work is often referred to as committed time in the literature on time use. Domestic labor is an important component of gender-identity formation with much research arguing that the performance of housework produces gender, at the same time as accomplishing domestic activities. It may also be argued that domestic labor is an increasingly important component of consumer identity, particularly as it encompasses outsourcing of some domestic work to certain groups or classes, purchasing of goods and services, and the maintenance of home and lifestyles, all of which act to produce and affirm social identities and class distinctions.

The activities defined as domestic labor are not static across time. A number of forces shape the nature and content of domestic labor, including changes in the nature and location of paid work, technological changes in household appliances, changes in family structure and size, changes in the architecture and décor of the family home, changes in patterns and styles of food consumption and clothing, as well as changes in the definitions and meaning of care work, in particular parenting. Historically, the tasks commonly associated with housework in the West only emerged after industrialization as family life was increasingly separated from industrial production. Prior to industrialization, many of the goods and services essential to the maintenance of family life were produced within households. The [Page 472]development of a wage economy led to the increasing separation of home and paid work and a redefinition of the activities carried out in households as unproductive labor. As industrialization developed, work came to be defined as activities done by men outside the household in return for a wage, while the home and family were increasingly defined as women's sphere, a private, nonproductive world separate from the public world of commerce and industry.

The nature of domestic labor was further transformed in the late-eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries by the domestic-economy movement with its emphasis on scientific training and the desire to teach women, particularly working-class women and the domestic servant class, the principles of hygienic cleaning and cooking. For middle-class women, domestic-economy experts promoted housework as a new profession, combining a range of managerial, creative, and scientific skills. New tasks, such as compiling schedules, timetables, and record keeping, were created to make housework more efficient but actually resulted in an increase in the amount of time spent on housework. Additionally, the architecture of the home was revised to accommodate the new image of the kitchen as a laboratory where the woman of the house spent a great deal of her time. The introduction of gas, and later electricity, to many private homes in the early part of the twentieth century led to a number of other architectural changes in the family home. Space had now to be made in the kitchen for the refrigerator, stove, and hot-water service. Some years later, the washing machine and vacuum cleaner became essential household appliances, promoted as both laborsaving appliances and essential consumer goods for the middle-class household.

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