Gendered Isolation: A Study on the Gendered Division of Household Labor and the Multiple Burdens of Rural Mothers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This study advances that before the main inquiry is addressed, it is imperative to first and foremost understand the features and the implications of the gendered division of household labor. What this study finds is that such a demarcation is embedded in the households studied in that for a great majority of them, mothers handle most of the household tasks exclusively. This sole ownership is most prominent in tasks of cooking, doing the dishes, procuring grocery items, taking care of the children, helping children with school work, and cleaning the house — tasks that are traditionally viewed as feminine and are used to depict ideal women as household managers. Data from the fieldwork also reveal that the tasks that no household endows the exclusive responsibility of to mothers are most commonly shared between them and their children, not their husbands. This minimal participation from the husbands is likewise seen even in the shared accomplishment of other home management-related tasks. However, a 92 substantial increase in participation from the husbands is noticeable with regards to responsibilities that require heavier physical labor and involve financing the household. The tasks where the husbands seem to be given exclusive responsibility by most of the households include performing repairs and maintenance that need to be done in the home and, although less commonly, the provision of funds for the payment of bills. Another major finding of this study is that the gendered division of household labor, which inadvertently manifests in the unequal amount of time spent fulfilling household chores between the mothers and their husbands, is perceived by the former as rather normal and natural. The acceptance for this type of an arrangement is, as the data show, underpinned by various factors. First is the influence from the socialization process that happens within the home, that is practiced and preserved through role modeling. The mothers’ exposure to role models (i.e. their families/parents when they were little) that espouses traditional values on gender roles is what compels them to abide by the uneven distribution of household tasks within the home as their way of becoming role models for their children and preserving the same values. Secondly: the mothers justification of the gendered division of household labor also stems from the belief that the mothers’ adherence to such dynamics within the household is a mere function of the construction of their feminine identities and their husbands masculine identities. As a majority of the tasks within the home are traditionally considered feminine, the mothers ascription to these tasks naturally follows. Lastly, the belief that women are better than men in performing home-management-related tasks also largely contributes to such rationalization. As women mainly assume the fulfillment of the so-called feminine tasks, they become more skilled at performing them compared to their male counterparts. This, as this study reveals, is what partly urges the mothers to accomplish the tasks themselves instead of delegating them to their husbands.