The American Gender Gap in Unpaid Domestic Work
It is well known that more women than ever are participating in the labor force in the United States.
However, what is not talked about nearly as much is how their duties as housewives have changed very little over the years: “In 1950, 30 percent of American women were in the labor force; by 2011, that had risen to 59 percent” (Machung and Hochschild, 2012). The book The Second Shift: Working Families and the Revolution at Home recounts and analyzes the experiences of married couples with regard to their expectations about work, childcare, and domestic responsibilities.
Although women have moved into the workplace, many have not been able to release or share their traditional roles in the home. In this country, women must be mothers no matter what other responsibilities they take on. The data visualization below supports this by illustrating the gender gap in time spent doing unpaid domestic and care work. This is not specifically regarding married couples, but it is important to notice the vast difference in time obligations.
Coming off the fourth wave feminist movement of the early 2010s in the United States, we would expect that more protections and opportunities would be provides to women who want careers. This includes both governmental support as well as support from their spouse. For example, until The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, women could be dismissed due to pregnancy, as well as discriminated against with different job tasks, denial of hire and promotion to list a few examples.
In the home, many couples still unconsciously operate under the assumption that the wife will perform “the lion’s share” (Machung and Hochschild, 2012) of work: i.e. more childcare and domestic chores such as cooking and cleaning.
Even today, there is no paid maternity leave in the United States, and no laws have been passed to ensure equal pay for equal labor between men and women. All of these issues cause women to be less protected in the workplace and have less upward mobility in their careers.
