Losing Home at Home: When Men and Women Feel More at Home at Work

Abstract

Home — here understood as the place where people live and sleep — has always been highly gendered. Women have historically been associated with ‘home’ and remain until our day the primary ‘home-makers’ (Fuwa, 2004; Hareven, 1983; Jasper, 2000, p. 235; Mallet, 2004; Perrot, 1990; Simmel, 1984). The growing incidence of women working outside the home in many Western countries has thus altered the situation at home. Particularly in the US, numerous authors (Gerson, 2004a, 2004b; Gerson and Jacobs, 2004; Gornick and Meyers, 2003; Jacobs and Gerson, 2004b; Schor, 1991) describe the consequences of the gender revolution in highly alarmist tones: Americans suffer from a ‘time squeeze’, feel overworked and have little time for home.