ABSTRACT
Within the institution of marriage, women are expected to do a great deal of the care work for children and partners, as well as the housework, and continue to do this to a greater extent than men (Maushart, 2003). The unmarked and seemingly unnoticed quality of this unequal physical and emotional labour has been commented upon in previous studies (Mansfield and Collard, 1988: 35). As Askham’s study (1984) shows, a movement into more structured roles occurs on marriage as stability is needed to maintain the relationship. In more recent work, such as Hockey et al. (2010: 179-180), men showed more awareness of the constructed inequality of labour in marriage and were attempting to come to terms with the inequality of emotional labour especially, but women remain the ‘self-defined guardians of their families’ emotional lives’ (2010: 18). Mansfield and Collard’s finding that performing traditional gender roles within marriage confirms ‘normality’ for those involved continues to have resonance (1988: 53). The ‘emotional labour’ (Hochschild, 2003a: 7) within relationships is rarely counted as work by those within the relationship itself, but is nevertheless an important contributor to its smooth running – work performed in the main by women. I wish to consider the unequal nature of love and particularly ‘emotion work’ (Hochschild, 2003a) in marital relationships in this chapter, and how naming decisions become a part of this work.
