IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/pophec/v16y2017i2p174-209.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Citizenship, reciprocity, and the gendered division of labor

Author

Listed:
  • Gina Schouten

    (Harvard University, Cambridge, USA)

Abstract

Despite women’s increased labor force participation, household divisions of labor remain highly unequal. Properly implemented, gender egalitarian political interventions such as work time regulation, dependent care provisions, and family leave initiatives can induce families to share work more equally than they currently do. But do these interventions constitute legitimate uses of political power? In this article, I defend the political legitimacy of these interventions. Using the conception of citizenship at the heart of political liberalism, I argue that citizens would accept political interventions aimed at protecting the ‘genuinely available option’ to enact gender egalitarian lifestyles. More strongly still, I argue that under certain circumstances, citizens would insist on the enactment of political interventions to protect this option. According to political liberalism’s constraints on legitimacy, this insistence renders these interventions not only legitimate but positively mandatory. It is legitimate for a state to exercise power to preserve the genuinely available option to enact a gender egalitarian lifestyle, and under certain circumstances, it is illegitimate for a state to fail to do so.

Suggested Citation

  • Gina Schouten, 2017. "Citizenship, reciprocity, and the gendered division of labor," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 16(2), pages 174-209, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:pophec:v:16:y:2017:i:2:p:174-209
    DOI: 10.1177/1470594X15600830
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1470594X15600830
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1470594X15600830?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sarah Estes & Mary Noonan & David Maume, 2007. "Is Work-Family Policy Use Related to the Gendered Division of Housework?," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 527-545, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Trude Lappegård, 2012. "Couples’ Parental Leave Practices: The Role of the Workplace Situation," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 298-305, September.
    2. Leila Karimi & Aboulghasem Nouri, 2009. "Do Work Demands and Resources Predict Work-to-Family Conflict and Facilitation? A Study of Iranian Male Employees," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 193-202, June.
    3. Deborah Thorne, 2010. "Extreme Financial Strain: Emergent Chores, Gender Inequality and Emotional Distress," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 185-197, June.
    4. Elisabeth Ugreninov, 2013. "Can Family Policy Reduce Mothers’ Sick Leave Absence? A Causal Analysis of the Norwegian Paternity Leave Reform," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 34(4), pages 435-446, December.
    5. Marisa Young & Jean Wallace, 2009. "Family Responsibilities, Productivity, and Earnings: A Study of Gender Differences Among Canadian Lawyers," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 305-319, September.
    6. M. Nakhaie, 2009. "Professors, Ideology and Housework," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 30(4), pages 399-411, December.
    7. Sonya Britt & R. Roy, 2014. "Relationship Quality Among Young Couples from an Economic and Gender Perspective," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 241-250, June.
    8. Jose Aurelio Medina-Garrido & Jose Maria Biedma-Ferrer & Antonio Rafael Ramos-Rodriguez, 2023. "Moderating effects of gender and family responsibilities on the relations between work-family policies and job performance," Papers 2401.13681, arXiv.org.
    9. Michael Quinn & Stephen Rubb, 2011. "Spouse Overeducation and Family Migration: Evidence from the US," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 36-45, March.
    10. Jean Wallace, 2008. "Parenthood and Commitment to the Legal Profession: Are Mothers Less Committed than Fathers?," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 478-495, September.
    11. Jose Maria Biedma Ferrer & Jose Aurelio Medina Garrido, 2023. "Impact of family-friendly HRM policies in organizational performance," Papers 2311.14358, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2023.
    12. Scott Schieman & Marisa Young, 2011. "Economic Hardship and Family-to-Work Conflict: The Importance of Gender and Work Conditions," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 46-61, March.
    13. Sevgi Çoban, 2022. "Gender and telework: Work and family experiences of teleworking professional, middle‐class, married women with children during the Covid‐19 pandemic in Turkey," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 241-255, January.
    14. Madalozzo, Regina & Martins, Sergio R. & Shiratori, Ludmila, 2008. "Participação no Mercado de Trabalho e no Trabalho Doméstico: Homens e Mulheres têm Condições Iguais?," Insper Working Papers wpe_118, Insper Working Paper, Insper Instituto de Ensino e Pesquisa.
    15. Jennifer Myrie & Kerry Daly, 2009. "The Use of Boundaries by Self-employed, Home-Based Workers to Manage Work and Family: A Qualitative Study in Canada," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 30(4), pages 386-398, December.
    16. Anne Winkler & Thomas Ireland, 2009. "Time Spent in Household Management: Evidence and Implications," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 293-304, September.
    17. Daphne Pedersen & Krista Minnotte & Gary Kiger & Susan Mannon, 2009. "Workplace Policy and Environment, Family Role Quality, and Positive Family-to-Work Spillover," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 80-89, March.
    18. Jose Aurelio Medina-Garrido & Jose Maria Biedma-Ferrer & Antonio Rafael Ramos-Rodriguez, 2023. "Relationship between work-family balance, employee well-being and job performance," Papers 2401.13683, arXiv.org.
    19. David Maume, 2011. "Reconsidering the Temporal Increase in Fathers’ Time with Children," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 32(3), pages 411-423, September.
    20. Lonnie Golden, 2008. "Limited Access: Disparities in Flexible Work Schedules and Work-at-home," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 86-109, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:pophec:v:16:y:2017:i:2:p:174-209. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.