Gendering the Household: Some Theoretical Considerations

Abstract

I want to begin by recognizing the possible tensions between an analysis which starts from a gender perspective and one which begins with the household. Both perspectives have been important in the development of current sociological analysis and both perspectives have themselves undergone change. Recognition of possible tensions between the two perspectives has been present for some time (Stanley, 1992a; Arber, 1993; Anderson, Bechofer and Gershuny, 1994; Morgan, 1996) and this chapter aims to outline the bases of this tension and possible ways of going beyond it. At the simplest level it could be argued that gender represents a mode of classifying individuals (as when an array of data is broken down by sex) while households refer to some form of collectivity. Hence, there is always the danger that gender differences will be subsumed under an analysis which takes the household as the level of analysis. This simple methodological point takes on greater significance when it is argued that gender is not simply a matter of difference but is also a question of inequality (Evans, 1995; Morgan, 1996). Here, as Anderson et al. (1994) recognize, a household-based analysis may ignore differences in terms of power.

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