The Unpaid Work of Mothers and Housewives in the Different Types of Welfare States

Are European welfare states converging in terms of the way unpaid household work is divided between men and women, or do European countries in fact differ considerably on this point? That is the central issue that will be addressed in this chapter. European data on the distribution of household work between men and women lead to different conclusions (Section II). One observation is that, although increasing numbers of women have jobs outside the home, household work is still largely women’s work in almost all Western nations. This “stalled revolution” (Hochschild, 1989) is an intriguing social fact for which there are different sociological and economic explanations (Section HI). The gender perspective complements the classic explanations. Definition processes, some more subtle than others, appear to contribute to the traditional division of domestic tasks between men and women in many countries in Europe (Section IV).