Avoiding the Housework

Avoiding the housework: Domestic Labour and Gender in Group Living Contexts

Author: Kristin Natalier from Electronic Journal of Sociology (2004)

Statement of the Problem: The who and why of domestic chores such as cleaning the toilets to vacuuming the common areas are achieved in non-traditional households.

Literature Review: The author of this study, Kristin Natalier, delves deep into the dynamics of negotiations, intimacy, actions and reactions of cohabitants in non-traditional households. This paper also explores the how and why of how masculinity and femininity play a role in these negotiations.

Hypothesis: The traditional role of men and women in non-traditional households, when it comes to the question of “who” is going to perform the domestic chores of everyday living within these households and why.

Methods or Methodology: This study was conducted using the snowball sampling technique. This technique is not listed in our text. Snowball sampling “is one in which the researcher collects data on the few members of the target population he or she can locate, then asks those individuals to provide information needed to locate other members of that population whom they know” (Snowball Sample). The sampling was of eleven households that totaled seventeen men and twenty-one women living in an Australian capitol. Each household was comprised of two to five people ages eighteen to thirty-one. All Caucasians. Thirty-five were heterosexual and three women were bi-sexual. The entire group has had a high level of schooling and individuals were interviewed separately.

Data Analysis: The analysis of the data is a summary of how domestic chores are either performed and/or dodged, illustrates the behaviors of how housekeeping can be clarified as an expression of nurturing and point to customary gender portrayals, and the change and negotiations of traditional male/female housekeeping duties.

Conclusion: One deduction indicates a de-gendering of chores,...