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91 Nw. U. L. Rev. 1 (1996-1997)
Turning Labor into Love: Housework and the Law

handle is hein.journals/illlr91 and id is 21 raw text is: Copyright 1996 by Northwestern University, School of Law Printed in U.S.A. Northwestern University Law Review VoL 91, No. 1 ARTICLES TURNING LABOR INTO LOVE: HOUSEWORK AND THE LAW Katharine Silbaugh* TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION .......................................... 3 II. HOUSEWORK IN SOCIOLOGY AND ECONOMICS .......... 8 A. Housework in Sociology ............................ 8 1. Time Use Studies: Housework Is Still Women's W ork ........................................... 8 2. Measurement Criteria and Their Meaning For W om en ......................................... 10 3. Possible Determinants of the Difference in Men's and Women's Household Labor ......... 13 4. What Makes the Distribution of Home Labor Problematic? .................................... 14 5. An Intellectual History Within Sociology: Housework Becomes Work in the Work-Leisure D ivide .......................................... 15 B. Economics and Housework ......................... 17 1. The Value of Housework ....................... 17 2. An Intellectual History Within Economics: The Home Is Not Just for Consumption ............. 18 C. Transformed Conceptions of Housework in Sociology and Economics and a Static Conception of Housework in Law ............................... 21 III. HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS OF HOUSEWORK ............... 21 A. The Origins of the Paid-Unpaid Labor Divide ...... 22 * Associate Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law. J.D., University of Chi- cago Law School, 1992; B.A. Amherst College, 1985. I thank Anne Alstott, Hugh Baxter, Jack Beermann, Daniela Caruso, Jane Maslow Cohen, Elizabeth Clark, Nancy Eisenhauer, Alan Feld, Elizabeth Foote, Anne Gowen, Michael Harper, Daniel Jurayj, Daniel Klerman, Susan Koniak, Pnina Lahav, Ellen Leary, Lawrence Lessig, Tracey Meares, Eric Posner, Richard A. Posner, Dylan Sanders, Ann Seidman, Robert Seidman, David Seipp, Reva B. Siegel, Nancy Staudt, Manuel Utset, Alex Whiting, and Larry Yackle for helpful comments on earlier drafts. I thank Lisa Bonner, Heather Hostetter, Marie-Flore Johnson, Lorraine Jones, and Maria Lopotukhin for extensive research assistance.