Household responsibilities in middle-class couples: The contribution of demographic and personality variables

Data were obtained from 164 middle-class parents on a battery of self-report instruments that included a household activities questionnaire inquiring about the relative responsibility of husband and wife for routine domestic tasks traditionally assigned to women, maintenance tasks traditionally assigned to men, decision making, and child rearing. In the modal couple, child-rearing and decision-making responsibilities were shared approximately equally by husband and wife, but in most homes, everyday household tasks were divided along traditional gender lines. The battery also included questions about a number of demographic variables and two personality measures, one tapping cluster of gender-differentiating instrumental and expressive traits and the other tapping three achievement motives: mastery, work orientation, and interpersonal competitiveness. Several of the demographic factors, particularly the employment status of the wife, and several of the personality factors in the wives and in the husband account for significant portions of the variability among couples in degree of responsibility assumed by wife vs. husband for decision making and for feminine tasks.Preparation of this article was supported by National Science Foundation Grant BNS 78-08911 and National Institute of Mental Health Grant MH32066 (Janet T. Spence and Roberl L. Helmreich, Principal Investigators).