Political Economy and the Construction of Gender : The Example of Housework within Same-Sex Households

In order to successfully use gender as a structure of constraint, I posit that the concept of gender be expanded from dichotomous categories of masculine and feminine to a continuum where agents are motivated and constrained by characteristics within the two extremes. Further, we must explore specific origins and attributes of gender--its relationship to sexuality, its dynamic nature and the significance of socio-historical context. Households consisting of same-sex couples provide an interesting case for examining the relationship between gender and the division of labor. Theoretical and empirical predictions claim that the lack of gender differentiation within such households results in inefficiencies, equality or gender-neutrality. In contrast, initial research on the division of labor within lesbian households indicates that lesbian couples employ a variety of different divisions of labor. One implication is that lesbian couples exhibit gendered patterns of relations. Same-sex households provide an avenue to expand our understanding of gender itself and the nature of the relationship between gender and the sexual division of labor