Couples Watching Television: Gender, Power, and the Remote Control

sought to confirm that partners in close relationships (West Hill, 1988; Holman Hochschild, 1989; Mederer, 1993). Recently, Firestone and Shelton (1994), using data from 1981 Study of Time Use, confirmed that married women have less overall leisure time than married men. They also demonstrated gender-divergent patterns in connection between paid work and both domestic (in-home) and out-of-home leisure time. Women who are employed have less out-of-home leisure time than men do, but men who are employed have less domestic leisure time than employed women. Specifically, they found that employment hours do not affect amount of leisure time that married women have at home. To explain this surprising finding, Firestone and Shelton speculated that leisure at home appears to be same for employed and nonemployed wives because leisure is compatible with household chores and with child care. In other words, women combine family work with leisure activities. For example, they iron while watching television. …