This article studies
thirty
-
three
dual
-
income Spanish childless
heterosexual
couples who were undoing
gender in routine domestic work. We understand “undoing gender” as defined by Deutsch (2007): “social
interactions that reduce gender difference”.
The d
ual
-
earner couples came from different socio
-
economic
backgrounds and were inte
rviewed in four different Spanish towns in 2011. The analysis shows that resources
in a wide sense
,
time availability, external help, ideas about fairness, and complex gender attitudes are key
interdependent factors that
together
may form
different paths l
eading to a non
-
mainstream division of
housework. Four paths are identified: the first two
are
based on
beliefs in gender equality and
on
ideas about
fairness equal responsibility and equal leisure; the third
is
characterized by conflict; and the fourth re
lies on
commodification.
The ways in which these couples are
undoing gender illustrate
the
external, individual and
couple circumstances spouses succeed to achieve a more gender
-
equal construction of unpaid wor
