Theorizing Housework as an Example of Power Dynamics

In Chapter 2 of the book we provide a review of the theoretical and empirical scholarship that has studied housework and document how power dynamics have been integral to both strands of scholarship. We present reviews of time availability, relative resources, bargaining, gender ideology, and economic dependence perspectives. We explain how power has been implicit in previous theorizing than then present our argument for the use of housework to understand power within the social exchange that is an intimate relationship.