Entitlement, Obligation, and Gratitude in Family Work

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Abstract
This article explores how feelings of entitlement, obligation, and gratitude affect family work. Exploratory interviews suggested that memories of past events, including extramarital affairs, created expectations and referents that influenced subsequent divisions of household labor. Using regression analysis of survey data from a random sample of 193 remarried individuals, hypotheses about the division of labor derived from human capital and social structural theories were tested along with the hypothesis that past affairs would influence the allocation of household tasks. More sharing of household labor was associated with husbands being employed fewer hours and holding egalitarian attitudes, and wives being employed longer, earning more, and holding conventional attitudes. Husbands' previous extramarital affairs were associated with less sharing. Drawing on gender theory, the authors suggest that past experiences, situational constraints, and patterns of inequality in the larger society influence marital economies of gratitude, which, in turn, shape the allocation of household labor.