'Where's me dinner?': food preparation arrangements in rural Australian families

In the wake of the second-wave feminist movement and related social changes, including the participation of more women in the paid workforce, an egalitarian discourse has dominated notions of the ideal division of domestic labour in heterosexual households, including those tasks involving food preparation. Some critics have argued, however, that this discourse is not taken up in practice, with women still taking more responsibility than their partners for cooking for the family. This article presents findings from a qualitative study involving interviews with 34 heterosexual couples living in a rural region of Australia about their food preparation arrangements. The findings demonstrate that for most of the couples the female partner did indeed take major responsibility for cooking for the family. Three dominant rationales were expressed by the participants to explain why the division of labour remains unequal in relation to cooking: those of expertise, enjoyment and fairness. Importantly, however, there was evidence of a weakening in gendered assumptions about who should cook and of significant participation by men in food preparation. This was particularly the case among younger, more highly educated participants or those in professional occupations or in couples where the male partner was unemployed.