02/22 - Athenaeum at 1pm - Laundry or Lawn Mowing? Housework as Gender Performance in Same-Sex Couples

Please join us for our Library Athenaeum on Wednesday February 22, 2012 at 1:00pm. Nicole Civettini, Assistant Professor of Sociology, will present Laundry or Lawn Mowing? Housework as Gender Performance in Same-Sex Couples.

Professor Civettini will discuss her test of an original theory that incorporated the idea of normative vs. non-normative gender displays with the "gender performance" approach and a trend toward gender liberalism among lesbians and gay men. In a survey of 244 members of same-sex couples, people who expressed high levels of gender-normative traits (femininity for lesbians, masculinity for gay men) did not use housework as way to create a gendered identity. However, women who expressed greater masculinity did a smaller share of housework than other women, and men who expressed greater femininity contributed a larger share of housework relative to other men in the sample.