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…

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)

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 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…

Three groups of women--wives with no outside employment, wives employed in non-professional occupations, and wives employed in professional occupations--were administered the Derived Identity Questionnaire and the Bem Sex Role Inventory. The two working groups revealed less "derived identity" than did the non-employed group. (Author)

Studied married couples' allocation of tasks within the household and found that role specialization existed in accordance with traditional sex role norms. Found that wives' self-esteem was not significant, but that the number of hours they were employed, their sex role orientation, and the attitudes of their significant others were significantly…

Describes the current post-Superwoman era in which women are more free to make choices about homemaking and employment. Women are now secure enough in the workforce that they can quit or work part-time without feeling they have let the sisterhood down. (CB)

Full-time homemakers (N=55) and 63 full- or part-time outside job holders completed a questionnaire which assessed their level of satisfaction overall and with specific aspects of the homemaker work role or job. It was found that both full-time homemakers and job holders were quite satisfied with the homemaker work role. (Author)

Used nationally representative sample of 2,031 adults aged 18 to 90 to compare housework and family care as primary activity with paid work and with volunteer work, leisure activities, home and yard maintenance, and schoolwork. Found that unpaid domestic work was more routine, and it provided less intrinsic gratification and fewer extrinsic…

This research paper focuses on the interaction between two prominent roles of mothers: employment and the social placement of daughters in marriage. The findings support the notion of a causal chain that links (a) maternal employment with (b) a different view of social placement with (c) differential maternal encouraging behavior or involvement in…

Examined time allotments to household, paid, and unpaid work for farm, rural nonfarm, and urban women. Findings from 2,100 two-parent, two-child families revealed no significant differences among groups in allocation of time to household work. Of three groups, farm women spent more time in unpaid work, and rural nonfarm women devoted most time to…

Official statistics on women's participation in the economy are used to conceal the real economic contributions of women. Several ways of tabulating a national economic activity, all of which ignore the contribution of domestic economies to national economies, are analyzed, and the implications of the invisibility of women's work are discussed.…

Factors identified from normative interaction, resource theory, and family development theory were related to female, shared, and male household task responsibilities of wives and husbands. Employed wives tended to reduce their responsibility for female household tasks with little or no change in the responsibility of the husband. (Author/CT)