Differences in women's and men's responses to domestic space

Men and women were surveyed about feelings toward and activities occurring in their own living rooms, kitchens, bathrooms, and bedrooms. In general, women recalled more activities than men did over all the rooms. For the living room, women were more concerned with room size and feeling cramped. For the kitchen, women described baking, ironing, and clothes washing more frequently and showed more concern with cooking and tidying up. However, men made more references to eating when describing the kitchen, showed greater concern with design, decorating, and building for the kitchen and bedroom, and made more explicit references to use of the bathroom toilet. Other results did indicate that women and men were both highly sensitive to and aware of their living space.This research was conducted while the author was a research fellow at the Psychology Department of Kings College, University of Aberdeen in Scotland. The author wishes to thank the following individuals for their help during various stages of the project: Christopher Creed, Philip Greenway, John Simon, and Derek Wakelin.