ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses theoretical aspects of informal work within dual-earner families. The basic idea behind the problems in focus is that conditions for negotiations within families are in a process of change due to many structural and cultural circumstances. The chapter presents a theoretical approach for a study of how men and women negotiate responsibilities and the division of time, money and love: in particular, how the outcomes of the negotiations are justified and argued for as being reasonable and fair or unreasonable and unjust. It discusses families as social groupings with regard to conceptions of morality and to the classical theory of reciprocity in social relationships and power within families from a gender perspective. The chapter examines different approaches concerning the ways in which women are subordinated to men. It considers the integration of family and employment and describes what extent different professional cultures have an impact on the ways in which legitimacy is perceived in contemporary families.
