Conservative Protestantism and the Division of Household Labor among Married Couples

To date, few studies have examined the role of religion, especially conservative (i.e., fundamentalist and evangelical) Protestantism, in shaping the division of housework. The authors begin by reviewing popular writings on gender and family life by contemporary conservative Protestants, focusing on the competing discourses of traditionalist and egalitarian evangelicals. Then, the authors analyze data on a large U.S. sample of married couples from Wave 1 of the National Survey of Families and Households to compare conservative Protestant housework patterns with those among nonevangelical couples. Conservative Protestant wives perform more housework overall and spend more time doing “female-typed” labor than their nonevangelical peers. These differences are then traced to religious variations in spousal and household resources and also to a distinctive evangelical gender ideology. Interestingly, few religious differences in men's housework patterns are observed. Implications of these findings are discussed and several promising directions for future research identified.