“Doing Gender”

Abstract

Through thinking about and empirically analyzing lesbigay domestic arrangements in Sweden, this paper aims at broadening the understanding of gender and further developing the “doing gender” perspective as applied to housework division. It begins with a review of empirical findings of and the application of the “doing gender” approach to housework division, identifying problems associated with a focus on heterosexual units in a context where gender norms are seemingly homogeneous and conventional. To make full use of the perspective, it is necessary to allow for contradictions in and resistance against normative expectations of gender. Empirically, this translates to exploring domestic arrangements in a variety of settings with different normative expectations of gender. This paper takes a small step in this direction through undertaking an empirical study of the division of housework in lesbigay households in Sweden and finds a strong pattern of egalitarianism that consists less in a 50% split between the couple in all household tasks but in the fluidity, complexity, and deliberateness in which housework is shared, especially among lesbian couples. The analysis further underscores the importance of gender in lesbigay households.