The Gender Factory: The Apportionment of Work in American Households

by Berk, Sarah Fenstermaker (1985)

Key Passage

"The imperatives posed by the production of gender relations mean that the division of household labor not only is concerned with the rational sorting and optimal matching of tasks and time household members, but is also centered on the symbolic affirmation of the members or their 'alignment' with each other as husband and wife, man and woman, brother and sister. Nevertheless, how much is gender, and how much is work is hardly the question. Instead, it is clear that, as gender and work are 'done,' already-existing patterns of both are ratified by household members." p. 206 ()

Keywords

Gender, Feminism, Domestic Labor, Household Production, Family Power, Equality, Home Economics, Empirical Study

Themes

Feminist Critiques of Work Centrality, Women and Work

Links to Reference

• https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/256421161

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