The Gender Difference in the Division of Labour - Essay Example

The Gender difference in the Division of Labour Introduction Gender differences are prominent in all aspects of life especially when it comes to the division of labour. Whether it is professional work or household tasks, division of labour has remained an important topic of debate. It has been observed that mostly women are involved in unpaid household work whereas men specialise in paid work at marketplaces; however changing work patterns and expanding economic role of women have eroded this conventional idea (Marshall, 2006). Now though the women are a major part of the workforce and men are equally helping with household work and childcare but still there is a great disparity in division of labour between the two genders. Though the men perform household duties and help women in childcare and other household chores; however, still women are found to have more household responsibilities as compared to men. This paper critically evaluates gender differences in the division of labour with a keen focus on the aspects of marital and family satisfaction and psychological wellbeing of both genders. The paper, in the light of research literature, analyses how gender differences may affect family life of the individuals and how deeply it affects individual’s psychological well-being. Discussion Several researches have discussed the disproportionate division of labour among the two genders while studying its effects on various aspects of human life. One of the major areas studied is family harmony and satisfaction which is found to be affected most of the time due to uneven work distribution and other aspects of differences in the workplaces and family lives. Voydanoff (2005a) explained that family life is affected significantly when an individual feels that demands of paid work is affecting their performance at unpaid work, that is, work domain is affecting family domain; this gives rise to work-family conflict. Studies show that the level of this work-life conflict mainly differs for genders (Duxbury & Higgins, 1991). Studies showed that women are more vulnerable to work-life conflict than men (Duxbury et al., 1994; Dilworth, 2004; Mennino et al., 2005) resulting in distress in their marital life and family satisfaction. One of the probable reasons of this finding seems to be the disproportionate division of labour among the genders. Women being more prone to work-family conflict mean that they are more stressed out with work which is obvious as they have additional responsibilities of unpaid household work. This is also found in the studies of Grzywacz and Marks (2000) and Dilworth (2004) that work and family conflict has connotation for women especially in instances where their nature of paid job is more demanding. Studies have also found a positive aspect to increased demands of paid work as it allows parents to get outside help by hiring a maid for household chores to cope up with the additional responsibilities (Hertz, 1999; Voydanoff, 2005b). This will reduce stress and lead to family life satisfaction. Psychological well-being is yet another area found to be affected due to uneven distribution of work among genders. Vlassoff (2007), while studying gender differences and mental health problems, have linked it with economic determinants and work and family life of the patient. Though the study was mainly a comparison between developed and developing countries however links can be found with gender differences in the division of labour and job circumstances. Vlassoff (2007) highlighted that due to the fact that the numbers of non-standard workers (part time or temporary workers) is increasing the job insecurity also escalates. This trend of non-standard work is found to be more common among women workers (may be because of the fact that they are involved in unpaid work as well so they prefer part time or temporary jobs) and hence they suffer more from mental problems. Stress of job insecurity among women involved more in non-standard work leads to psychological issues and emotional problems including depression. The researcher reported that married women face more psychological problems as compared to single women and men (Vlassoff, 2007); one of the obvious reasons of this trend being uneven labour division among these groups as stated by Vlassoff (2007, p. 45) while evaluating the links among gender, mental problems and economic status that “women also had many other family responsibilities which they had to fulfil, in addition to their paid labour”. The link among employment status, gender and mental health problems is evident in past studies as well. Rosenfield (1989) compared men and women with jobs of similar nature and found that men and women with similar work demands (both paid and unpaid) showed same symptoms of mental health problems. However, the author acknowledged that women being involved in work of higher demands and significant familial responsibilities showed higher psychological distress as compared to men. The study concluded that difference in genders and their respective economic roles affects mental health of the individuals where women are found to be more under stress, anxiety and depression as compared to men. In another study carried out by Cooke (2004) interesting facts from sociological perspective are highlighted. The researcher found that gendered division of labour is changing the traditional patterns of labour market. Now more women are participating in paid labour that has significant impact on their family lives. The researcher concluded that women have both the responsibilities of work and households and this ‘second shift’ where they have to perform household duties results in marital conflict and psychological distress. Marshall (2006) discussed the implications of these effects resulting from increased women participation in labour market for the policy makers and employers. The author highlighted that these changing division of labour patterns call for the development of effective policies to accommodate women workers. The author also highlighted that minute responsibilities of women like dropping and picking kids to and from the school and taking care of sick child are the responsibilities mainly performed by the women and in case women workers do not perform these tasks appropriately it will result in conflict in work-family life. Marshall (2006) mentioned that increasing workload makes it difficult to balance work life and family life and hence WLB (work-life balance) policies and legislations have become vital. The author mentioned that owing to these changes and in order to ensure less conflict in family life and increased family satisfaction and psychological well-being of employees, WBL policies are now a common practice in Canadian public policy. Leschke and Jepsen (2011) also suggested that in order to ensure physical and mental health and less family conflict arising due to increased workload and changing work patterns there is a need to converge the models of ‘parity caregiver’ and ‘universal breadwinner’ which are two traditional models. The authors emphasized that there is a need to change the traditional gender division of labour where the men was a universal bread earner and women was a parity caregiver and a model needs to be designed that the authors named as ‘universal caregiver’ where the two traditional models are converged and the roles of genders are mixed and both genders contributes equally towards earning and child rearing. Leschke and Jepsen (2011) also pinpoint the need to have policies and legislations ensuring gender equality in order to promote psychological well-being and conflict free family life. Conclusion Gender difference in division of labour is evident in both the professional work environments and household division of work. Women are increasingly taking economic role and this has disturbed their traditional role as caregivers and home makers. Research shows that this transitional labour market has significantly affected traditional division of labour and more is expected from men to contribute towards the household tasks as women are also taking upon the breadwinner’s role. Though the men are contributing towards household responsibilities but a major contribution is still expected from women which results in imbalance in division of labour. This further leads to work overload resulting in distress, psychological ill-being and marital dissatisfaction due to conflict among the partners. Pertaining to this situation, the only solution is the convergence of ‘parity caregiver’ and ‘universal breadwinner’ models. Combining these two models will remove the gendered division of labour giving rise to ‘universal caregiver’ model which expects from both genders the role of earners as well as caregivers hence making both genders responsible for both paid and unpaid work. This will remove gender disparity in division of labour to a great extent allowing both genders to play equal roles in their lives. Another good solution is the inclusion of work-life balance policies where the women workers are accommodated to an extent that they can give time to their traditional responsibilities along with working as bread earners. However, this will then have implications for employers and businesses too as they would then have to accommodate women workers without preferring men over women in an urge to get more productive employees. And once businesses accommodate women workers, they also have to be responsible enough to contribute to the business progress without taking undue advantage of perks given to them in the name of work-life balance. This means contribution from all sides is expected in order to make this transition in division of labour successful. References Cooke, L. P. (2004). The gendered division of labor and family outcomes in Germany. Journal of Marriage and Family, 66, 1246-1259. Dilworth, J. E. L. (2004). Predictors of negative spillover from family to work. Journal of Family Issues, 25, 241–261. Duxbury, L. E., & Higgins, C. A. (1991). Gender differences in work-family conflict. Journal of Applied Psychology, 76, 60–74. Duxbury, L., Higgins, C., & Lee, C. (1994). Work-family conflict: A comparison by gender, family type, and perceived control. Journal of Family Issues, 15, 449–466. Grzywacz, J. G., & Marks, N. F. (2000). Reconceptualizing the work-family interface: An ecological perspective on the correlates of positive and negative spillover between work and family. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 5, 111–126.  Hertz, R. (1999). Working to place family at the center of life: Dual-earner and single-parent strategies. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 562, 16–31. Leschke, J., & Jepsen, M. (2011). Can Transitional Labour Markets Contribute to a Less Traditional Gender Division of Labour? Journal of Economic and Social Policy, 14 (1), Article 7. Retrieved April 01, 2014 from http://epubs.scu.edu.au/jesp/vol14/iss1/7 Marshall, K. (2006). Converging gender roles. Perspectives on Labour and Income, 7 (7). Retrieved April 01, 2014 from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/75-001-x/10706/9268-eng.htm#Cooke Mennino, S. F., Rubin, B. A., & Brayfield, A. (2005). Home-to-job and job-to-home spillover: The impact of company policies and workplace culture. The Sociological Quarterly, 46, 107–135. Rosenfield, S. (1989). The effects of womens employment: personal control and sex differences in mental health. J Health Soc Behav., 30(1), 77-91. Vlassoff, C. (2007). Gender differences in Determinants and consequences of health and illness. Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition, 25(1), 47–61. Voydanoff, P. (2005a). Toward a conceptualization of perceived work-family fit and balance: A demands and resources approach. Journal of Marriage and Family, 67, 822–836. Voydanoff, P. (2005b). Work demands and work-to-family and family-to-work conflict: Direct and indirect relationships. Journal of Family Issues, 26, 707–726. Read More