Toward a Framework for the Analysis of Family Divisions and Inequalities in Modern Society

Abstract

This essay is about the connections between (1) the gender divisions and inequalities associated with the private sphere of family life, and in particular with the performance of ‘domestic labour’ (housework, childcare) and (2) the processes, developments and events which have been a recent feature of the public sphere of British society, with particular reference to the ‘economic system’ and the ‘political system’. One such event has been the 1987 General Election, and accordingly the essay will build towards an examination of its implications and possible consequences for the conjugal division of domestic labour. This will be done in view of the argument that women’s greater involvement in the performance of (private) domestic labour is both a major factor in accounting for their distinctive ‘political profile’ and, in turn, largely an outcome of their relatively limited participation and power within the (public) political system; or, to put it another way, of men’s greater participation in, and even domination of, this system.