DOMESTIC TASKS, GENDER EGALITARIAN VALUES AND CHILDRENS GENDER TYPINGIN CONVENTIONAL AND NONCONVENTIONAL FAMILIES

Relationships between gender egalitarian values, family lifestyles, an d children's gender typing were studied among 156 Euro-American, worki ng to upper middle class nonconventional families, and a comparison sa mple of 51 two-parent, married couples. Did efforts to alter domestic task allocation in nonconventional countercultural families influence children's gender typing at age six? Children's gender typing scores w ere not directly related to patterns of task assignment, although they were moderately correlated with parents' gender egalitarian values an d nonconventional lifestyles. The nonconventional families tended to h ave children displaying less stereotyping of male objects, and more no n gender-typed responses. These effects were stronger among girls. Hou sehold organization (single parent, married or unmarried couple, or co mmune), regardless of family lifestyle and values, was strongly relate d to shared vs. more exclusive forms of task assignment. Mothers' egal itarian values also were associated with more shared tasks. The effect s of shared domestic tasks in the home on children's gender typing see med to be indirect, mediated by the child's sex and the meaning parent s attached to their task assignment in the home.