Tesis Doctorado
“The second half of the gender revolution: individual and national determinants of couples, división of domestic labour. The case of Chilean couples and International Comparisons”
Autor
Reyes-Brito, Javiera Paz
Institución
Resumen
Industrialization and the conformation of modern societies established separate spheres for men’s and women’s roles, leaving men in hand of the public sphere of production, and women in charge of the domestic sphere through care and household tasks, thus replacing the family economy of preindustrial societies (Nash, 1983, Newman and Grauerholz, McKeon, 2005, Abrams, 2006, Davidoff and Hall, 2007, Luna, 2009). But in recent decades a gender revolution is undermining the modern division of labour in western societies, pushing cultural definitions of gender roles to the limit, weakening the policies and norms that were the support of the male breadwinner model, and leading to a new theorization about contemporary families (Hook, 2006, Goldscheider, Bernhardt and LappeGård, 2015). This process has two sociological milestones: the first and the second half of the gender revolution. During the first half of the gender revolution women enter into the public sphere through paid work opening new opportunities and bringing economic support to the household, a phenomenon that is especially important among married mothers who had essentially a domestic role in the industrial period. The second half of the gender revolution occurs more recently through men’s involvement in the private sphere of the family, contributing in housework and care of household members (Goldscheider, Bernhardt and LappeGård, 2015). These processes do not occur in the same way or at the same pace everywhere. The intensity of the first and the second half of the gender revolution depends on prevailing norms and values about gender in each cultural context as on individual characteristics, making social research especially relevant for less observed societies (Budig, 2004). The increase in knowledge about the factors that favour equitable organization of daily life, can help women to reach more favourable positions both in the private and public spheres (Lachance-Grzela and Bouchard, 2010). The main goal of the present research is to help uncover the social determinants of the second half of the gender revolution, trying to establish the limits of the first half to promote by itself male imbrication in the private sphere. In this scope I will examine the main sociological mechanisms that explain the gendered division of labour in different contexts and through different analysis strategies. First, I analyse the role of individual factors and national context on couples’ division of domestic labour in 34 countries using data from the 2012 ISSP “Family and Changing Gender Roles” Module (Chapter Three). Then I will focus on one of the most unequal countries in terms of gender and work which is Chile. I examine the social determinants of the second half of the gender revolution using two data sets: the 2012 Chilean Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (Chapter Four) and the 2015 Chile’s National Time Use Survey (Chapter Five). Chile has been a scarce focus of research regarding division of labour within the family; therefore, this dissertation will be an important contribution to knowledge in this subject. PFCHA-Becas PFCHA-Becas