Discourses of Agency and Domestic Labor
Family Discourse and Gendered Practice in Dual-Earner Families
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2346337 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jenny Blain (Dalhousie University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1994 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 515-549 |
| Publication date | 1994-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Family Issues (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0192-513X • E-ISSN: 1552-5481 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/019251394015004001 |
| OpenAlex | W2158822676 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 16 |
| References cited | 23 |
This article uses the concept of family discourse to investigate the systematic structuring of social relations surrounding parents' gendered-often unequal-family responsibilities and practices. Drawing on data from in-depth interviews with parents of young children in dual-earner families, the article presents two ways of analyzing parents' accounts of reasons for their division of labor. First, it focuses on how parents use talk to construct rationalizations, myths, and coping mechanisms. Second, it moves beyond an interpretive approach to examine the discursive constitution of parents' talk, identifying four common discourses that run throughout parents' talk of domestic labor: personal preference; abilities of women versus men; roles and socialization; and natural bonding of mother and child. The author maintains that these not only give material for rationalizations but that by structuring perceptions, they enable parents to ascribe meaning to their action and construct new action from this meaning. Discourses of family surround parents and are commonplace in professional speech, media reports, and many other sources. By analyzing talk as discourse, we can reveal something of the institutional embeddedness of parents' practices and how these reconstitute unequal power relations within families
Aesthetics · Constitution · Discourse analysis · Embeddedness · Individualism · Perception · Political science · Social constructionism · Social science · Socialization · Sociology · Structure and agency · Structuring · Emotional Labor in Professions · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Psychology · Social Psychology · Work-Family Balance Challenges
Meaning and Measurement
Re-negotiating Gender
Strukturen familienhäuslichen Essalltags
The development of the Discourses About Fathers Inventory
One step forward, one step back
Home‐based Telework, Gender, and the Synchronization of Work and Family
Positioning Analysis of Filipino Family Narratives in the Context of Prisoner Reintegration
The Role of Husbands' Supportive Communication Practices in the Lives of Employed Mothers
A Temporal Multifaceted Adaptation Approach to the Experiences of Employed Mothers
Combining Work and Family in Two Welfare State Contexts
Over the hill and far away
Polish Families
Dual-Earner Parents With Disabled Children
Research on Household Labor
Changes in Housework After Retirement
Behind the scenes
Handbook of qualitative research
Feminism and Linguistic Theory
Family
Sex and Scientific Inquiry
Women and Education
Discourse, Ideology, Discourse, Ideology, Discourse, Ideology
Sex and Scientific Inquiry
The nature of love
Changing the Subject
The second shift
Settling Accounts
Mothering
Gender in Families
The Rhetoric of Motives in Divorce
From Sun to Sun
Producing Gender Effects on Involuntary Mental Hospitalization
Family Discourse, Organizational Embeddedness, and Local Enactment
| Unique citing works | 16 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,57 |
| Citation span | 1998 - 2025 (28) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 15 |