The Division of Household Work in Moroccan Amazigh Male-breadwinner Families with Young Children

Abstract

No previous research tackles the issue of household work in the Moroccan Amazigh context. In Morocco, household work is still restricted to Amazigh women. Wives perform a far greater proportion of household work than husbands. Moroccan Amazigh Couples may share household work, but not specific tasks. Household tasks have remained highly sex-typed and are shared quite unequally among most, if not all, married couples. In this regard, it is worth mentioning that the gender-based inequality in the division of household work is a hot issue that attracts the attention of most family research scholars. This study adds extra depth to further our understanding of the lopsided division of household work by hypothesizing that childhood socialization might influence the way male-breadwinner couples divide household work. Parents’ domestic work practices may have a great impact on the type of tasks undertaken by husbands and wives at the time when they were male and female children. Results indicate that childhood socialization and spouses’ gender ideologies have a great impact on the actual division of household work among male-breadwinner couples. Changes in the traditional division of labor are likely to come from couples experiencing paternal domestic involvement during childhood.