Skip Navigation


Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society Advance Access originally published online on February 14, 2006
Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 2006 13(1):117-143; doi:10.1093/sp/jxj005
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
13/1/117    most recent
jxj005v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (5)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Cooke, L. P.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Policy, Preferences, and Patriarchy: The Division of Domestic Labor in East Germany, West Germany, and the United States

Lynn Prince Cooke

Lynn Prince Cooke is a postdoctoral research fellow in the School of Social and Behavioural Science at University of Queensland.

Individual agency observed in the gendered division of labor is shaped by structural factors, but only recently has evidence emerged that the effect of women’s resources varies systematically in its sociopolitical context. Here we use the 1994 International Social Survey Program to assess whether the relative effect of a proxy for women’s and men’s preferences—hallmark of individual choice—varies as well across three countries with divergent historical policy approaches regarding the private sphere. East German socialist policies required and supported women’s employment; West German policy promulgated a male breadwinner model, and U.S. policy primarily remains silent on the private sphere. The division of domestic tasks and relative strength of individual preferences on shifting it vary by region. In the former East Germany the division of domestic labor is more egalitarian and the effect of preferences is small but equal for the genders. In West Germany the division is more traditional and preference effects are greater, but gender differences in these are insignificant. The U.S. division of domestic task falls between the two German regions, and the gender difference in preference effects is the greatest, with U.S. men’s preferences predicting significantly more variance than do U.S. women’s. Consequently, allowing the market to dominate does not yield equal strength of preferences in the individual-level models used to predict the division of domestic tasks. This supports the dual-system feminist claims that capitalism can exacerbate nonmarket patriarchal hierarchies.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Eur Sociol RevHome page
M. Voicu, B. Voicu, and K. Strapcova
Housework and Gender Inequality in European Countries
Eur. Sociol. Rev., June 1, 2009; 25(3): 365 - 377.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Eur Sociol RevHome page
M. Evertsson and M. Nermo
Changing Resources and the Division of Housework: A Longitudinal Study of Swedish Couples
Eur. Sociol. Rev., September 1, 2007; 23(4): 455 - 470.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.