Family formation and the divisions of labour in Belgian couple households - How a qualitative research proposal was grounded in the analysis of paneldata
T. Jacobs et al., Family formation and the divisions of labour in Belgian couple households - How a qualitative research proposal was grounded in the analysis of paneldata, QUAL QUANT, 33(3), 1999, pp. 291-303
In this chapter the authors describe how a quantitative analysis resulted i
n a proposal for a qualitative research. The aim of the quantitative resear
ch was to analyse the impact of family formation on the division of labour
in couple households, based on data from the Panel Study on Belgian Househo
lds.
In a first step a typology was made based upon data of 1224 Belgian couple
households (1995). The second step consisted of a longitudinal analysis for
the period between 1992 and 1995. The analysis of the impact of birth on t
he division of labour gave evidence of the revocability of equal patterns o
f division of labour.
Based on these findings the authors concluded that the classic concept of e
mancipation does not allow us to understand the empirical phenomena. Hence,
the authors proposed a new (qualitative) investigation aimed at clarificat
ion and empirical validation of different contents of the concept of emanci
pation.