Household Work as an Ordeal: Culture of Standards Versus Standardization of Culture

Some feminist authors assert that household work is inexorably debasing for women. This paper questions that hypothesis on both theoretical and methodological grounds by exploring (a) ambiguities in the links between patriarchy and capitalism and (b) the meanings of housework across cultural and historical settings. A research agenda is proposed in which it is suggested that housework is both an ordeal of civility through which individuals judge their joint membership in the same social milieu and an ordeal of conviviality through which individuals who pass within the same milieu reinforce social bonds. The conclusion elucidates why changes in the division of housework should not be synonymous with the eradication of tasks.