ABSTRACT
Erika, a 43-year-old teacher living with her husband and three children in Hamburg, tells us a story that is shared by almost all of the female employers we interviewed in the four countries. The management of the household entails a rigid division of work around three areas: the cleaning and sorting out of the house, maintaining her relationship with her husband and last, but not least, responsibility for the children. As our interviews in urban middle-class liberal homes indicate, these households shared the view that domestic work should be evenly split amongst its members. However, despite this rhetoric, the traditional gendered division persist when it comes to domestic work.
