Equal couples in equal houses

Scandinavia is inhabited by ‘kitchen-people’ (Gullestad 1984). They are a people who dwell in well-built, well-insulated houses with pitched roofs; a people who love spending time with family and friends in the kitchen, and who put a lot of effort into making their homes warm and cosy. They are a people who tend to emphasise similarity as a sign of equality and who, consequently, tend to de-emphasise the gender division of household responsibilities (Gullestad 1992).