My first Publication GenderedDistributionOfLabour(clone) | Page 5

their lives if they do not want to. This means that political intervention is necessary only
when people do not have the freedom to make their own choices regarding this matter.
IV.
Other Views
It is believed that the choices men and women make within the family with regard to the
gendered distribution of labour is because they are conforming to a social norm. This social
norm works as a sort of ideology which restricts both men and women from choosing freely.
Arneson (1997) states that the best approach to solving the issue of the gendered distribution
of labour within a family is to adopt John Rawls’s view in ‘A Theory of Social Justice’, that
the family is “a basic structure of society” (p. 7). This means that if the organisation of
society is a just one, individuals (both men and women) who received equal opportunities and
resources from their childhood years until adulthood, then they should be able to make their
own choices regarding the matters of family. (Arneson, 1997: 314).
Furthermore, the author analyses Susan Okin’s ‘equal split’ rule which entails that the
husband and wife should equally share the paid labour and the domestic labour duties.
However, in order for this ‘equal split’ rule to be considered just, it must be decided how the
benefits and burdens are shared between the spouses. This kind of rule requires equality
between paid labour and domestic labour; meaning that if one works extra hours of paid
labour, that should not counteract with less hours worked in domestic labour. This should not
determine the equality of the split, as what counts is personal resource contribution, rather
than personal desire or income. (p. 315).
Moreover, the author believes that even if an equal split rule would not exist, it would not
necessarily mean that the labour distribution within a family is unjust. Some people prefer to
work paid labour and some prefer to do housework and childrearing. Arneson states that:
“For example, if I am skilled at laundering and child care and enjoy these forms of work but
my income-earning capacity is slight, while my wife is a cardiologist who hates housework,
many deviations from an equal split arrangement involving my doing more laundering and
child care and my wife doing more paid labour and controlling more of the income from paid
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