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Until 20 years ago, social science research on housework was largely nonexistent (Glazer-Malbin 1976; Huber and Spitze 1983), but since then, research on the topic has exploded. Patterns of housework and how housework is experienced by participants have been documented in both qualitative (e.g., Hochschild with Machung 1989; Oakley 1974) and quantitative studies (e.g., Berk 1985; Blair and Lichter 1991; Coverman and Sheley 1986; Goldscheider and Waite 1991; Rexroat and Shehan 1987; Ross 1987; Shelton 1990; Spitze 1986; Walker and Woods 1976). The vast majority of these studies have focused on married couples, but a few have examined cohabiting couples as well (e.g., Blumstein and Schwartz 1983; Shelton and John 1993; Stafford, Backman, and Dibona 1977). The rationale for focusing on couples is typically a research interest in equity (Benin and Agostinelli 1988; Blair and Johnson 1992; Ferree 1990; Peterson and Maynard 1981; Thompson 1991) and in how changes in women's employment and gender roles have changed, or failed to change, household production functions.
Very few studies have examined housework as performed in noncouple households composed of never-married, separated or divorced, or widowed persons (e.g., Grief 1985; Sanik and Mauldin 1986). Such studies are important for two reasons. First, people are spending increasing amounts of time in such households at various points in their lives due to postponed marriages, higher divorce rates, and a preference among adults in all age categories (including the later years) for independent living. For example, the proportion of households that includes married couples decreased from 76.3 percent to 60.9 percent between 1940 and 1980 (Sweet and Bumpass 1987), and the number of years adult women spend married has decreased by about seven years during the past several decades (Watkins, Menken, and Bongaarts 1987). It is important to learn how housework is experienced by this substantial segment of the population to understand the household production function in general and because performance of housework is related to decisions about paid work and leisure time for people in these categories.
Second, the housework experiences of single, divorced, and widowed persons go with them if they move into marriage or cohabitation--these experiences are part of the context in which they negotiate how to accomplish tasks jointly with a partner. People may use those prior...