Gender, households and work

It investigates how these relate to people’s opportunities to do paid and unpaid work and to care.

This agenda is key to understanding how policies can impact on these inequalities. Indeed, division between paid work and unpaid domestic work and care is a key influence on gender inequalities both within and between households. Inequalities with households interact directly with wider gender inequalities in society, reinforcing each other.

Past projects include Transitions in Kitchen Living (TiKL), an ESRC funded project completed in 2011, in which Sheila Peace and John Percival explored people’s experiences of kitchens past and present, looking at how they reflect changes in people’s lives. Visit the Life long kitchens website for more information.

People involved with work in the Gender, Households and work theme include: Alison Andrew, Jerome de Henau, Susan Himmelweit, Sheila Peace, Cristina Santos, Elizabeth Silva.

Alongside and including individual research interests, there are 2 projects in this theme:

Gender and Intra-Household Entitlements (GeNix): A Cross-National Longitudinal Analysis

Investigators: Susan Himmelweit (Professor, OU Faculty of Social Sciences), Jerome De Henau (Lecturer, OU Faculty of Social Sciences), Cristina Santos (Lecturer, OU Faculty of Social Sciences) and Zeenat Soobedar (Research Associate, OU Faculty of Social Sciences)

The aim of this ESRC-funded project Gender and Intra-Household Entitlements (2009-2012) is to understand the factors that influence the extent to which individuals differentially benefit from their household’s. The aim is to capture the full range of benefits from household income, not just in terms of consumption, by examining the factors that influence the satisfaction of men and women in couples with their common household income.

The factors investigated include policy-relevant factors that are influenced by gender roles and opportunities more broadly in society and may affect the perceived contributions and autonomy of individuals within households. These factors include men’s and women’s individual contributions through paid or unpaid work and their opportunities to support themselves if the couple breaks down. This study is being conducted cross-nationally using panel data from the UK, Germany and Australia, in order to explore the effect of socio-economic, cultural and policy differences.

‘Non-traditional’ occupational choices - understanding the influences of and impact on family and other social relationships

Investigator: Alison Andrew (Senior Lecturer, OU Faculty of Social Sciences)

The pilot study (2012-2013) aims to explore the extent to which women’s decisions to pursue traditionally male areas of training and work are embedded in family and other relationships, as well as wider discourses of gender, and to explore the impact of such decisions on those relationships, including the occupational decisions of others. The initial focus is on women in Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) and on craft and technician-level training and occupations in SET, since these are under-researched compared with graduate-level professions. This initial phase will explore retrospectively the context of earlier career choices and the continuing impact these choices have had on family and other relationships.

Future development of the research may include a comparative focus on men in traditionally female areas of training and work such as personal services and care.