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The food-work task most likely to be performed by men in my sample in households both with and without children was washing up after the meal. Table 11.4 below shows that 85.7% of the 14 male shiftworkers living in households without children in my sample who answered this question indicated they were usually responsible for this task, as did 66.7% of the 18 male shiftworkers living in households with children. Interestingly, more female shiftworkers living in households with children indicated that they were usually responsible for washing up than

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females in households without children. The values for p suggest that the results may be statistically significant for males and females.

Table 11.4:1 am usually responsible for washing up, by household composition and gender household composition

Why might male shiftworkers in my sample have been more likely to be responsible for this task than women? One reason might have been that washing up was the food-work task least determined by time; even though the man might have not been back from work in time to cook he could still wash up afterwards. Warde and Martens (2000:99) noted that, in households where time was scarce, such as was often the case when one or both partners worked full-time, there was more pressure on men to contribute to food-work. Men might contribute by performing the least demanding food-work task. Couples with young children might also have

‘traded’ the tasks of washing up and putting the children to bed, perhaps negotiating these tasks on a daily basis according to their other commitments (Hochschild 1989).

Also, I did not ask my respondents for which meals they were usually responsible for washing up afterwards and gender responsibilities might have varied for different meals. Washing up after breakfast, for example, was probably less of a chore than washing up after the evening meal. In some households, it may have been that clearing up after the meal was shared between partners, done by them both, or done by children, or a dishwashing machine might have been used. As shown in the last chapter, 20% of households in my study possessed a dishwashing machine and so neither partner might have been ‘responsible’ for ‘doing’ the task.

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To summarise, with the exception of washing up after the meal, female shiftworkers in my sample in households both with, and without, children were more likely than men in such households to be responsible for food-work tasks. Indeed, it seemed that household composition had little effect on the gender division of the food-work tasks of planning meals, shopping and cooking, as the vast majority of women in both types of household indicated that they were usually responsible for these tasks. With the possible exception of planning meals, male shiftworkers in my study living in households without children seemed more likely to see themselves as responsible for food-work tasks than men with children. Men without children in my study were almost twice as likely to describe themselves as usually responsible for cooking meals than did male shiftworkers with children. I explain the pattern of gender divisions of labour in food-work revealed in my sample in section 11.3.

11.2.V. Gender divisions in food-work in shiftworker and non-shiftworker households Were gender divisions of labour in food-work more or less unequal in shiftworker than in non­

shiftworker households? As noted in chapter 5, I did not conduct a quasi-experimental study with a control group of non-shiftworkers which might have allowed this question to be answered.

Instead I have drawn on comparator studies to contextualise my findings.

I compared my findings with those of Warde and Martens (2000) as this study was conducted in the same year as my own. In the second phase of their study of eating out, Warde and Martens (2000) conducted a questionnaire survey of 599 households, containing 1001 men and women aged 1 6 - 6 4 in Britain in 1995. Table 11.5 shows the percentage of female shiftworkers living in households with children in my study who indicated that they were usually responsible for food-work tasks, and the percentage of women, in households both with and without children, whom Warde and Martens (2000) found indicated that they performed various food-work tasks the last time they were done.

** = in 2 adult households with and without children

*** Warde and Martens (2000:96)

Comparison of the two sets of findings suggests that the female shiftworkers in my study were more likely to indicate that they were usually responsible for food-work tasks than the women

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studied by Warde and Martens (2000). For example, I found 85% of women in household with children in my study indicated that they were usually responsible for cooking, compared to 75%

of women who indicated that they did the cooking the last time it was done (Warde and Martens 2000). This might suggest that shiftwork encourages a traditional gender division of labour in some households in which women are more likely to see themselves as responsible for food- work tasks than men. In non-shiftwork households, it might be that men are more likely to perform food-work tasks, or that these tasks are shared by both partners. I discuss these points further in the next section.

However, methodological differences between my study and that of Warde and Martens (2000) need to be recognised as they might account for some of the differences between the two sets of findings. First, the two studies phrased their questions about gender divisions of labour differently. Warde and Martens (2000) asked who performed the task the last time it was done, and allowed respondents a choice of ‘women’, ‘man’, ‘both’ or ‘other’, whereas I asked who was

‘usually responsible’ for the task. A woman may still be ‘responsible’ for ensuring that the task was performed, even if someone else did the task the last time it was done. For example, the woman might have decided which goods were needed, and have written the shopping list, even though the man went to the shop, and so she is still responsible for ensuring the shopping gets done.

Second, although approximately 60% of respondents in Warde and Martens’ study were in full or part-time paid work, the authors did not indicate the number of women in paid work in their sample. They also did not differentiate between households with and without children in their analysis of the data. In contrast, I distinguished between patterns of gender division of labour in households with and without children. For these reasons, although my findings seemed to support those of Warde and Martens (2000), my conclusions are tentative as further research is needed.

11.2.vi. Summary

It might have been thought that shiftwork would challenge traditional gender divisions of labour in food-work. As the work schedule of some female shiftworkers meant that they were not at home at mealtimes regarded as customary in Britain today, it might have been supposed that other members of their households would take responsibility for preparing meals. However, my study suggested that this was not the case and that gender divisions of labour around food-work in shiftworker households could be more pronounced than in non-shiftworker households Female shiftworkers, in households with and without children, were more likely than male shiftworkers in my study to see themselves as usually responsible for food-work. Although there were differences between households with and without children in the extent to which male shiftworkers were responsible for ceitain food-work tasks, overall, men’s involvement was limited and it was the case that women saw themselves as responsible for feeding the family, whether they worked shifts or not. These findings were consistent with Murcott (2000) and

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Social Trends 2003 which also found women did the majority of household chores in 2000- 2001, despite their increased participation in the labour market (Social Trends 2003:224).

11.3 EXPLAINING GENDER DIVISIONS IN FOOD-WORK IN SHIFTWORKERS'