The Puzzle

While many of those impressed by the logic of the revolving door emphasise the extent of change, others express surprise at the persistence of the sexual division of domestic work. In a society thought to be changing rapidly, the stability of household organisation can be seen as a ‘major puzzle’ (England & Farkas 1986). In this chapter I examine various ways in which the puzzle is said to be solved, through analyses of supposed obstacles to change. To search for obstacles is to abandon a sexual-political analysis at the outset. At best, obstacle analyses are ‘empirically true, but theoretically false’, as Saraceno described the supposed contradiction between motherhood and paid employment, and quite often they are empirically false as well.

Investigating obstacles to change does not mean adopting the kind of naively optimistic view of change seen in earlier chapters, but those puzzled by the lack of change mostly remain within the general framework of optimistic gradualism. To be profoundly puzzled about the matter is to assume that change is inevitable and is blocked only temporarily, though some writers have a foot in both camps – interpreting optimistically the evidence of small changes and at the same time arguing that obstacles are impeding the more rapid change which had been expected.

The position of puzzlement often involves a naive assumption about widespread social change, compared with which domestic work can be seen as a ‘puzzling backwater’ (Brines 1994: 652). Certainly the gendered social order has not been static, but general change is often exaggerated. According to the rhetoric of post-feminism, women have already made great advances.