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Legal Recognition Of Same-Sex Relationships: New Possibilities For Research On The Role Of Marriage Law In Household Labor Allocation, Deborah A. Widiss
Legal Recognition Of Same-Sex Relationships: New Possibilities For Research On The Role Of Marriage Law In Household Labor Allocation, Deborah A. Widiss
Articles by Maurer Faculty
Research comparing the relative significance of economic exchange theories and gender norms on parents’ division of income-producing and domestic responsibilities often fails to consider sufficiently the role that marriage may play. This article shows that, in the United States, numerous aspects of state and federal law relating to marriage encourage spouses to specialize in distinct breadwinning and caretaking roles. Same-sex marriage offers new opportunities to assess the importance of marriage in household labor allocation decisions while controlling for gender. For any data gathered before June 2015, however, it may be distorting to characterize same-sex couples as simply “married” or “un-married”; …
Reconfiguring Sex, Gender, And The Law Of Marriage, Deborah Widiss
Reconfiguring Sex, Gender, And The Law Of Marriage, Deborah Widiss
Articles by Maurer Faculty
This article brings together legal, historical, and social science research to analyze how couples allocate income-producing and domestic responsibilities. It develops a framework—what I call the marriage equation—that shows how sex-based classifications, (non-sex-specific) substantive marriage law, and gender norms interrelate to shape these choices. Constitutional decisions in the 1970s ended legal distinctions between the duties of husbands and wives but left largely in place both gender norms and substantive rights within marriage, tax, and benefits law that encourage specialization into breadwinning and caregiving roles. By permitting disaggregation of the marriage equation, the new reality of same-sex marriage can serve as …