• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.61-75
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• 2003

The goals of this study were threefold. First, the researcher sought to describe the perceptions of wives and husbands concerning the degree of fairness in the division of household labor. Second, the determinants of wives and husbands' perception of the fairness in the division of household labor were analyzed. Third, the factors that affect wives' perception of the fairness in the division of household labor were compared with the factors that affect husbands' perception of the fairness. The data of this study were collected from a survey of 139 married couples with children of high school age or younger, residing in Seoul, Inchon, and Kyunggido. A structured questionnaire was used in the survey. Frequencies, percentiles, mean, Peason's correlations, Cronbach's alpha, t-tests, and multiple regressions were used to analyze the data. The results show that both the wives and the husbands perceived the division of household labor as unfair for the wives. Further, husbands' gender-role attitudes and household labor preference affected wives and husbands' perception. Most comparison reference variables affected significantly the wives and husbands' perception. Lastly, there was a gender difference in the significance of comparison reference variables and demographic variables. The wives mainly employed within-marriage comparisons but the husbands mostly used outside-marriage comparisons. The demographic variables affected the wives' perception, but not the husband's.