ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that this gender role is important in determining what it means to be a woman or man to a particular spouse. Contrast this with a ‘consumption-identity’, which describes how one uses commodities to construct a social identity. When women enter the labor force, rarely do their husbands make significant additional contributions to homework in their absence. Wages from older children and wives were most common, followed by income from lodgers. The level and immediacy of perceived income inadequacy is much greater for working class wives. The apparent paradox is that women’s earnings display more inequality than men’s due to part-time and full-time work, so it seems odd that they would be the agents of equality. The effect of gender-identity may be so strong as to force even comparatively more successful working wives back into the home when young children are present.
