Who should do the dishes now? exploring gender and housework in contemporary urban South Wales

Mannay, Dawn ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7368-4111 2014. Who should do the dishes now? exploring gender and housework in contemporary urban South Wales. Contemporary Wales 27 (1) , pp. 21-39.

Preview

PDF - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (115kB) | Preview

Abstract

This paper revisits Jane Pilcher’s (1994) seminal chapter ‘Who should do the dishes? Three generations of Welsh women talking about men and housework’. Two decades on from the original study, the paper explores this question in contemporary south Wales by drawing upon data generated in a study of mothers and daughters residing in a Welsh, marginalised, urban housing area. The paper argues that in contemporary Wales, the domestic sphere remains a site of inequality, where women are negotiating the impossibility of being both in full-time employment and meeting the ideology of the ‘Welsh Mam’. Furthermore, the work of women and the accompanying expectations have moved from being peripheral to becoming central; this places women in a psychological impasse where they identify themselves as ‘lazy’ when they cannot simultaneously fulfil these roles to the unreachable standards of the new respectable working-class femininity.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races
Publisher:	University of Wales Press
ISSN:	0951-4937
Funders:	Economic and Social Research Council
Related URLs:	Publisher
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Last Modified:	17 May 2023 07:11
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/57657

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item