The Division of Labor in Contemporary Marriage: Expectations, Perceptions, and Performance

Abstract

In this paper we examine the marital role expectations and perceptions of spouse's role expectations with respect to childcare, housework, money management, and earning income in a sample of 489 married couples. We analyze degree of agreement between spouses about expectations, accuracy of the perceptions about a partner's expectations, the differences between expectations and behaviors, and the effects of expectations and perceptions of expectations on role performance. Results indicate that: (1) marriage partners do not want to give up their own traditional gender roles even though they are willing to participate in the traditional roles of the opposite sex; (2) spouses accurately perceive their partner's expectations about half the time, and husbands are more accurate than wives; (3) spouses think they carry more responsibility for household duties than their partners think they do; (4) perceptions of partner's expectations significantly influence spouses' role performances; and (5) the husband's expectations are powerful predictors of performance, indicating that male prerogatives in marital role bargaining are still quite strong.