Domestic tasks,gender egalitarian values and children's gender typing in conventional and nonconventional families

Relationships between gender egalitarian values, family lifestyles, and children's gender typing were studied among 156 Euro-American, working to upper middle class nonconventional families, and a comparison sample of 51 two-parent, married couples. Did efforts to alter domestic task allocation in nonconventional countercultural families influence children's gender typing at age six? Children's gender typing scores were not directly related to patterns of task assignment, although they were moderately correlated with parents' gender egalitarian values and nonconventional lifestyles. The nonconventional families tended to have children displaying less stereotyping of male objects, and more non gender-typed responses. These effects were stronger among girls. Household organization (single parent, married or unmarried couple, or commune), regardless of family lifestyle and values, was strongly related to shared vs. more exclusive forms of task assignment. Mothers' egalitarian values also were associated with more shared tasks. The effects of shared domestic tasks in the home on children's gender typing seemed to be indirect, mediated by the child's sex and the meaning parents attached to their task assignment in the home.