2024/12/16 by Xiaodong Sun, Siwei Li · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Work-Family Balance Challenges #Social Policy and Reform Studies #Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics
paper · doi:10.1080/13229400.2024.2438640
openalex publication_date 2024/12/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/14
Despite the substantial growth in women’s employment and income, why does housework remain wives’ enduring responsibility? From interviews with 15 young married couples in urban China, and guided by Komter’s gender power theory, the authors capture the inconspicuous mechanism through which the gendered housework division is established, maintained, and reproduced in everyday interactions. By exercising Invisible Power, couples construct an apparent consensus on gender roles that justifies all gender disparities; wives’ attempts to change the division through Manifest Power are often dissolved by husbands’ exercise of Latent Power. Based on the unique context of urban Chinese households, this study further proposes a new dimension to the framework – the Supportive Power. Supportive Power provides limited help for women and confines women’s resources within their partnership. Overall, this study widens the boundary of scholarly exploration and allows a more comprehensive examination of housework division in urban China.