February 5, 2013
Hard choices in work and family viewed differently by men and women
When Kathleen Gerson conducted a study of how young adults felt about marriage, the majority of both women and men indicated a desire for egalitarian marriages in which earning the family income, housework, and childrearing would be shared equally. Reporting on Gerson’s study and cross-posting a summary of its findings on both Sociological Images and the Ms. blog, sociologist Lisa Wade showed that even though such equal partnership was held as the ideal by the study’s participants (regardless of class, race, or family background), something else was revealed when participants were asked about another possible situation. What would be their fallback position if, for some reason, equal sharing of work and family responsibilities could not be realized or sustained? Read about the gender-based differences in the answers that emerged.
