Abstract

Cross-national surveys show that among heterosexual couples who share a household, women tend to perform more housework than their male partners. Many feminists believe that this must be unjust, the assumption being that justice requires an equal distribution of housework between the sexes. My aim in this contribution is to challenge this view. To do so, I distinguish three possible interpretations of it. The first says that heterosexual co-residential partners, construed broadly to include married individuals, should do as much housework as their partner and not more. The second interpretation maintains that they should split evenly the housework that must be done to realize a minimally decent living standard. And the third maintains that the housework co-residential male and female partners each perform as a group ought to be equal, whether or not the constituent loads are equalized on an individual household level. All three versions are found to be untenable.