Gendered Labour in the Family: A Project of TWU’s History of the Family After 1600 Class
Robynne Rogers Healey, PhD Who does the dishes, cooking, laundry, and housework in your family? Is it the same person who does the yard work, takes out the trash, or fixes things around the house? Do you consider these tasks gendered and the work of particularly gendered individuals in your household? Or is your family one of those families where the division of labour is not particularly gendered? Designating household tasks in categories based on gender is not new. The gendered division of labour in families has a long history; studies suggest it is still entrenched in some way in families today. When we stop to think about the reasons we associate particular tasks with gender performance we begin to understand the reasons why we continue to hold strong gender associations with household work. This blog highlights the work of some of my History of the Family After 1600 students at Trinity Western University. Each student was asked to select two tasks that have historically been ...
