This research addresses couples' reports of their (hypothetical) attempts t
o maintain or change a gendered division of labor through conflict interact
ions. Two experiments in which spouses responded to scenarios showed that s
pouses reported more conflict over the division of housework than conflict
over paid work and child care, and that wives more often than husbands desi
red a change in their spouses' contribution. Spouses reported more wife-dem
and/husband-withdraw than husband-demand/wife-withdraw interaction during h
ypothetical conflict over the division of labor, but only when the wife des
ired a change in her spouse's contribution. Together, the data imply that w
ife-demand/husband-withdraw interaction is a likely response to the asymmet
rically structured conflict situation in which the wife is discontent with
her husband's contribution to housework, while her husband wants to maintai
n the status quo. We further showed that defenders of the status quo were m
ore likely expected to reach their goal than complainants. In the role of c
omplainant, wives were more likely expected to reach their goal than were t
heir husbands, but only when the conflict issue concerned their own gender
stereotypical domain (i.e., family work).