REPLACING HOUSEWORK IN THE SERVICE ECONOMY - GENDER, CLASS, AND RACE-ETHNICITY IN-SERVICE SPENDING

Using data from the 1993 Consumer Expenditure Survey to examine housew ork-related service consumption, the author finds that spending on hou sekeeping services and meals out-which helps relieve women's housework burden-is affected by dynamics within marriages as well as by family class and race-ethnicity. Other things equal, families in which women have more relative power as reflected in their income and occupational status, consume more housekeeping services and spend more of their fo od dollars on meals out, as do wealthier families and white families. Along with housework itself which is well studied, these results sugge st that housework service consumption is also an arena for gendered ne gotiation and conflict within families, and one way that gender relati ons vary by class and race-ethnicity.