GENDER AND FAMILIES.

Assignment: Journal Entry: Gender Division: Unpaid labour work The journal entry should be no more than 300 words in length and include: - a reflection on points of interest in the reading(s) - an explanation of a key concept/theory in the set reading(s) - a comparison/contrast of key points in the readings - a discussion/critical analysis of the online learning resources with reference to the readings and or/key concepts and theories presented in the readings. Please use the two required readings provided below for this assignment. Please also check the marking criteria attached below to maximise the result. No plagiarism please and thank you.

Running head: GENDER AND FAMILIES
GENDER AND FAMILIES
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1GENDER AND FAMILIES
The division of labour in the household has remained a topic for discussion for quite
some time. As Baxter (2002) indicates, the growing awareness regarding the value of the
unpaid domestic work that women perform alongside the increased active participation of
women in the employment sector should indicate towards a more uniform division of labour
among the men and women. While a convergence of men’s and women’s domestic labour
time is noticed in studies, the results indicate that both are spending less time in the
household activities with women participation declining by six hours since 1986 (Baxter
2002).
In the context of unequal division of household labour, Beck and Beck-Gernsheim
(2002) argue that the younger contemporary couples might be living in what would be
considered a ‘Stalled revolution’ or a ‘Modernization Gap’ which explains a rift between the
idealised concepts of family happiness and satisfaction, autonomy and progress and the actual
experiences of recognition partnered with damaged self-esteem and distaste for human
dignity. Expanding upon the concept of Stalled Revolution (Hochschild 1989), Baxter (2002)
indicates towards an existing gap in the men’s interest towards involvement in household
work, and contrasts in against ‘Men’s quiet revolution’ (Gerson 1993) where men are
increasingly departing from their traditional ‘breadwinner’ model to adopt a more active role
in the domestic workspace.
While the existing gap in the division of gender based labour has much to study and
argue about, the two papers indicate towards the same concept that the division of labour,
albeit still unequal is seeing shifts that will accentuate the diminishing gap. Baxter (2002) has
further indicated that the lack of women’s interest clubbed with the pre-existing limitation of
men in the domestic workspace has given rise to the rift, which as highlighted by Beck and
Beck-Gernsheim (2002) can be mitigated by an array of conflict reduction strategies.

2GENDER AND FAMILIES
References
Baxter, J., 2002. Patterns of change and stability in the gender division of household labour in
Australia, 1986–1997. Journal of Sociology, 38(4), pp.399-424.
Beck, U. and Beck-Gernsheim, E., 2002. Institutionalized individualism and its social and
political consequences. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.