title: "Negotiating fairness": a study on how lesbian family members evaluate, construct, and maintain "fairness" with the division of household labor.
abstract: In this article, I examine how dual-earner lesbian families construct and evaluate an equal division of household labor through their perceptions of "fairness." Through 22 interviews of dual-earner lesbian families (a total of 44 subjects), I identify that lesbian partners use social comparisons with heterosexual families with whom they have contact, as well as their former heterosexual and homosexual families as an important link to justify what they believe to be a fair division of household labor. Childhood socialization and parental models, however, were not shown to adequately explain how members of a lesbian family construct a perception of equality concerning household division of labor.
authors.affiliation: Department of Social Sciences, Southern University at New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. ashesmail@aol.com
authors.forename: Ashraf
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Esmail
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D018452:Homosexuality, Female; D006796:Household Work; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012938:Social Perception; D014937:Work; D055815:Young Adult