Work-time, male-breadwinning and the division of domestic labour: male part-time and full-time workers in unsettled times

Warren, Tracey

Abstract

The majority of male workers spend full-time hours in the labour market while part-time employment is heavily female dominated. A decade of economic unrest in the UK following the recession of 2008–2009 was accompanied by a considerable expansion in the numbers of men working part-time. Growing male part-time employment is a significant phenomenon, with potential for narrowing gender inequalities in ways of working, inside and outside the home. Applying a gendered lens to men’s working lives, the article focuses upon the ramifications of this growing male work-time diversity. Unsettled times can create the circumstances for opening up acceptable behaviours, for ‘undoing’ gender roles. The financial circumstances of male part- and full-timers, and men’s engagement in unpaid domestic work, are compared. Part-time jobs are associated with more financial hardship than are full-time, but they offer up the potential for narrowing gender inequality in the sharing of core domestic work tasks.

Citation

Warren, T. (2022). Work-time, male-breadwinning and the division of domestic labour: male part-time and full-time workers in unsettled times. Sociology, 56(1), 72-96. https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385211019660

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 3, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Jun 25, 2021
• Publication Date: 2022-02
• Deposit Date: May 4, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 25, 2021
• Journal: Sociology
• Print ISSN: 0038-0385
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-8684
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 56
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 72-96
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385211019660
• Keywords: Sociology and Political Science
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5508319
• Publisher URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00380385211019660