ABSTRACT
This chapter assesses relevant literature from interactive approaches to understand how household work contradictions are addressed and what solutions are offered to the problem. In the 1920s Burgess stressed the significance of members' own conceptions of family roles and the ways in which these roles are developed through interaction within the family group itself. Burgess gave two categories that disrupt family harmony: first, a sudden change of women's status as a result of their employment and; second, a conflict among family members in the conception of their roles. Families use different strategies to manage their households. The notion of household strategies was introduced by Pahl to refer to 'distinctive practices adopted by members of a household collectively or individually to get work done': a strategy is the household's 'particular mix of parcels'. Brennen and Moss extended the notion of strategy by distinguishing between strategies and tactics.
