Working hard and hardly working: Domestic labor and marital satisfaction among dual-earner couples

This article examines the effect of domestic labor, gender ideology, work s tatus, and economic dependency on marital satisfaction using data obtained from self-administered questionnaires for 156 dual-earner couples. Analytic distinctions were drawn among three aspects of domestic labor household ta sks, emotion work, and status enhancement. The effects of each of these ele ments of the division of domestic labor on marital satisfaction were tested We also tested the effects of a respondent's satisfaction with the couple' s division of domestic labor on marital satisfaction. Finally, we tested th e effects of gender ideology, hours spent in paid work each week. and econo mic dependency on marital satisfaction. Far women, satisfaction with the di vision of household tasks and emotion work and their contributions to house hold and status-enhancement tasks were the most significant predictors of m arital satisfaction. Satisfaction with the division of labor around both em otion work and housework were significant predictors for men's marital sati sfaction. Partner's status-enhancement work was also predictive for men. Ec onomic dependency, paid work hours, gender ideology, partner's hours spent on housework, contributions to emotion work, and number of children and pre school-age children had only indirect effects on women's marital satisfacti on. For men, hours spent on housework, contributions to emotion work, partn er's emotion work, hours spent in the paid labor force, and number of presc hool children had an indirect effect on marital satisfaction.