Hochschild's study
Hochschild and Machung (1989) observed dual-earner couples and estimated women worked an extra month a year, while couples built 'family myths' about fairness.
Trends
Bianchi and colleagues (2000) found women's housework fell and men's rose slightly, but gaps persisted. Craig (2007) showed children raise mothers' load, feeding time poverty and the motherhood penalty.
Explanations
Bargaining theories expect higher earners to do less, but Brines (1994) and Bittman and colleagues (2003) found gender norms can trump money. Coltrane (2000) and Lachance-Grzela and Bouchard (2010) stress time, attitudes and policy, linked to care regimes and defamilialisation.
FAQ
- What is the second shift in simple terms?
- Women who work for pay come home to a second job of housework and childcare.
- Why do women do more housework?
- Earnings and time matter, but gender norms and care policies have strong effects.
Sources reviewed: 2026-10-26
References
- Hochschild, A. R., & Machung, A. (1989). The second shift: Working parents and the revolution at home. Viking. The book that coined the term.
- Brines, J. (1994). Economic dependency, gender, and the division of labor at home. American Journal of Sociology, 100(3), 652–688. Economic dependency and housework.
- Coltrane, S. (2000). Research on household labor: Modeling and measuring the social embeddedness of routine family work. Journal of Marriage and Family, 62(4), 1208–1233. A broad review of household labour research.
- Bianchi, S. M., Milkie, M. A., Sayer, L. C., & Robinson, J. P. (2000). Is anyone doing the housework? Trends in the gender division of household labor. Social Forces, 79(1), 191–228. Time-diary trends in housework.
- Bittman, M., England, P., Sayer, L., Folbre, N., & Matheson, G. (2003). When does gender trump money? Bargaining and time in household work. American Journal of Sociology, 109(1), 186–214. When gender outweighs earnings.
- Lachance-Grzela, M., & Bouchard, G. (2010). Why do women do the lion's share of housework? A decade of research. Sex Roles, 63(11–12), 767–780. A decade of research reviewed.
- Craig, L. (2007). Contemporary motherhood: The impact of children on adult time. Ashgate. How children reshape parents' time.