A long-standing debate questions whether homemakers or working wives are happier. Drawing on cross-national data for 28 countries, this research uses multi-level models to provide fresh evidence on this controversy. All things considered, homemakers are slightly happier than wives who work fulltime, but they have no advantage over part-time…

Discusses political, theoretical, and methodological issues in defining and measuring paid and unpaid work disability. Presents results of study analyzing disability in paid work and unpaid family work among 206 women with rheumatoid arthritis, demonstrating feasibility of measuring disability in family work and showing that women experience…

Provides an expansion and improvement of research on the factors related to wife's time spent doing housework. Results indicate that the fewer hours worked outside the home, the larger the family, the fewer number of meals out, the larger the house, the more hours are spent on housework. (JOW)

Discusses research based on a household time allocation model which assumes employment status and length of employment day are outside the realm of family choice when making daily time-use decisions. (JOW)

Working women appear to have a personal-value structure different from that of nonworking women. Economic and political values are more prominent among women who work, whereas social and religious values play a greater role for women who stay at home. (JOW)

Surveyed basic life values of homemakers and career women. Results indicated that both groups placed high priority on aesthetic and economic values. Career women placed a higher priority on political value; homemakers placed a higher priority on religious value. Results of a values hierarchy showed substantial differences from previous studies.…

Analyzed determinants of wives' perceptions of fairness of division of household labor. Data from 1988 National Survey of Families and Households indicated that husbands' contributions to "female" tasks and appreciation of women's household labor were most important determinants of wives' perceptions of fairness, with strength of…

Analyzed data from 2 percent sample of couples who filed for divorce/dissolution in California in six years from 1966 through 1971, to examine the relationship between wife's employment status and marital duration to separation. Results showed housewives were likely to be married longer before separation than were employed wives, except when they…

No major differences were noted in samples of working and non-working wives from the United States and France. (KS)

Examined effects of employment resources (income and workplace authority) on percentage of feminine-typed housekeeping tasks done by Canadian women and men. Found that personal achievements in labor market mediated effects of relative employment resources on performing such tasks, albeit differently for Canadian women and men. French-Canadian…

Examined relationship between wives' (N=147) employment status and their versus their husbands' (N=154) time spent on household tasks. Compared adjusted mean time that women and men spent in specific household tasks. Found employed women spent less time on female-typed tasks than full-time homemakers. Found husbands' total housework time not…

Used national survey data from over 700 respondents to examine how wives' labor force participation affects extent to which families use market economy to provide goods and services traditionally produced by women. Found that full-time working wives were more likely than wives at home to purchase cleaning and meal preparation services. (Author/NB)

Findings of this research indicate that it was the absolute amount of family income, not its sources, that had the most influence on both 1967 and 1972 net worth for the total sample. Wife's earnings may have made an important contribution to family net worth position. (CT)

Examines the health and contentment of husbands of employed women and husbands of housewives, replicating an earlier study. Improvements in sampling, measurement, and analysis procedures were incorporated into the restudy. Husbands of employed women evidenced no more signs of marital discord and stress than did spouses of housewives. (Author/BEF)