Gender, Domestic Labor, and Power in the Private Sphere

The Public/Private Divide and Women's Power

Division of labor occurs not only in the formal workplaces of the world, but also in the informal spheres of work. Domestic duties are often sharply divided by gender, with women commanding the bulk of domestic chores, duties, roles, and corresponding positions of power. The power of women in the domestic sphere is limited, however — confined to that realm and not transferable to the public domain. Men's power in the public, political, and economic dimensions is far more transferable. Therefore, women's power and influence in households is distinct from the power and influence of men in the economic and political spheres. Women remain marginalized in public and formal positions of power.

In societies in which the public and private divide is less clear, and when there are more blurred lines between the public and private domains, women do enjoy a higher overall status in the society ("Domestic Worlds and Public Worlds"). When the public and private spheres are sharply divided, women are relatively isolated not only from the outside world but also from each other. Their power is also restricted to the domestic dimension, conferring a great deal of authority on the men in those women's lives, due in part to a lack of access to other social and hierarchical models. In societies in which public and private are woven together, women have higher status partly because they are able to "challenge claims to authority" that would otherwise be made by men, and are backed up by other women ("Domestic Worlds and Public Worlds"). The division between the public and private dimensions can become further blurred in situations such as marital infidelity. As Parikh points out, one of the more unusual consequences of the AIDS epidemic in Uganda has been a shift in gender roles in the home, with women publicly shaming their wayward husbands because of their responsibility in spreading sexually transmitted infections.

Kinship, Gender Socialization, and Domestic Authority

From the vantage point of the home, it is easy to see how kinship and gender become mutually constructed. Gender roles are most obviously linked to the unique reproductive role of women, but the relationship between motherhood and gender roles is not necessarily a causal one. A whole construct of norms and roles becomes encoded in society. Boys are raised differently from girls and are taught to distance themselves from domestic duties early in their lives as they grow up and try to establish themselves as young men. Female children, on the other hand, remain tied to the domestic sphere and are given increased social status in their households simply by growing older. Boys need to "learn to be men," involving rites of passage that allow them entry into the public sphere ("Domestic Worlds and Public Worlds").

Of course, women do retain significant power in the domestic realm — for example, by controlling domestic economies and determining the parenting habits and styles of the fathers. Women determine when and whether to have children, and how to raise them ("Domestic Worlds and Public Worlds").

Class, Breadwinning, and Domestic Tensions

Socioeconomic class status generally mitigates gender, determining, for example, whether women need to work outside the home in situations where the man cannot be the sole breadwinner in the family. Men in these situations might feel emasculated, creating further chasms between them and their domestic partners. Similarly, a mother's work outside the home is often considered a distraction from her domestic duties, whereas a father's work is viewed as a critical component of his parenting responsibilities.

References

Parikh, Shanti. "From 'Private' Affairs to 'Public' Scandals."

Townshend, Nicholas. "Fatherhood and the Mediating Role of Women."