SATISFACTION WITH HOUSEWORK - EXAMINING THE PARADOX

This paper examines men's and women's levels of satisfaction with the domestic division of labour. In most households women continue to unde rtake the bulk of childcare and housework duties and consequently spen d significantly greater amounts of time on domestic labour than men. M en report high levels of satisfaction with these arrangements, but sur prisingly we find that almost half of our sample of women also report satisfaction with these arrangements. This finding has been reported i n studies from several countries. Our paper attempts to explain this a pparent paradox. Using data from a recent national survey in Australia we explore gender differences in levels of satisfaction with the dome stic division of labour and examine women's levels of satisfaction wit h household work arrangements in relation to a number of factors such as labour force attachment, attitudes to Sender roles and husbands' pa rticipation in domestic labour. Our findings raise implications for th e meaning of equity within the household.