Do Men and Women in Same-Sex Couples Engage in Gender Performance through Housework?

Jocelyn Fischer, Cornell University

This study will use American Time Use Survey (ATUS) data to examine whether men and women in same-sex and opposite-sex couples engage in gender performance through their time spent on housework by investigating (1) the relationship between a partner's share of a couple's earnings and time spent doing housework, and (2) overall time spent on housework, and overall time spent on specific household tasks, especially “female-typed” tasks. This study’s sample is much larger than those of previous studies on this topic. The sample also is somewhat more racially/ethnically and economically diverse than those of past studies and includes both female same-sex couples and male same-sex couples (past studies have mostly focused on female same-sex couples).