Annotated Bibliography: Gender, Family, & Marital Satisfaction in Korea

Cheung, A. K. L., & Kim, E. H. W. (2018). Domestic Labor, Attitudes, and Women's Marital Satisfaction: A Longitudinal Study in Korea. Journal of Family Issues, 39(16), 3931-3955.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

In this article, Cheung and Kim assess how gender and family attitude contribute to happiness of the partners in Korean families. In Korea, like most of the families in Asia, there is unequal burden of labor between male and female partners in a union. The intersection between work and traditional male and female role within domestic union, in light of changing gender roles influence satisfaction within families and this is what these authors try to look at. A strength of the source is that it relies on credible information from the Korean Longitudinal Survey of Women and Families. The longitudinal study represents each household including those of younger people. One weakness is that the research focuses only on traditional family gender roles. It concludes that the burden on domestic labor, specifically in younger family affects happiness. The division of labor is an essential contributor to satisfaction in Korean family due to changes in family gender roles.

Newkirk, Katie, Maureen Perry-Jenkins, and Aline G. Sayer. "Division of household and childcare labor and relationship conflict among low-income new parents." Sex roles 76.5-6 (2017): 319-333.

These authors investigate how the division of household chores and childcare between partners in union among America's low-income families contribute to satisfaction. The focus is specifically on families where both the mother and the fathers have daily jobs. The strength of the paper is that it indicates that men, unlike women enjoy childcare duties as opposed to other house chores. This is a good starting point in revealing causes of dissatisfaction in families. The paper's weakness is that it overlooks some underlying factors in family such as choices by family members to divide chores according to duties and engagement. Newkirk and Maureen conclude that gender behavior within household directly influences couples' relationships, especially people in formal employment. It is indeed true that division of labor among working American families influence relationship happiness due to the engagement they undergo daily.

Forste, Renata, and Kiira Fox. "Household labor, gender roles, and family satisfaction: A cross-national comparison." Journal of Comparative Family Studies 43.5 (2014): 613-631.

In this 2014 publication, Renata and Kiira analyze association between the perceived gender roles, household labor, and attitude and their contribution to satisfaction in families. The authors assess data across various parts of the continent including Asia, North America, Europe, and Latin America. A strength of this article is that it involves individual, family and country factors in measuring level of satisfaction in various families. On the other hand, a weakness is the cross-cultural differences in multiple areas where the study took place may influence the result of family satisfaction. From the paper, the overall finding is that the involvement of household members in family duties such as chores and child-caring is positively associated with the level of satisfaction. The authors rightly point out at some of the issues families face concerning level of satisfaction. What they leave out, however, is the sociocultural issues responsible for gender roles.

Blom, Niels, Gerbert Kraaykamp, and Ellen Verbakel. "Couples' division of employment and household chores and relationship satisfaction: A test of the specialization and equity hypotheses." European Sociological Review 33.2 (2017): 195-208.

Aside from assessing the household chores in relation t family satisfaction, Blom, Girbert, and Ellen go further to look at how time spent at work is also a factor. Time devoted to family chores varies across the nations studied in this research. In the end, the level of family satisfaction depended on the region. However, the general finding of the paper is that there was no association between time spent at work and the level of family satisfaction. On the contrary, duties at home exhibited a positive correlation between marriage and happiness. One strength of the paper is that it considers roles outside the family-like work. When a member of a household is engaged in work that demands a lot of their time the partner may not burden them with house chores. This directly affected their reaction to happiness. A weakness of this research is that it assumes the family gender roles are the same in these three countries, just as it is in Britain. The paper concluded that satisfaction was high in families where women spent more time at home as opposed to place of work. Women in household where men engaged in fewer chores due to office duties were relatively satisfied with the union. From the study, it is evident that duty, both at home and at place of work influence how couples respond to their relationships.

Carlson, Daniel L., et al. "The gendered division of housework and couples' sexual relationships: A reexamination." Journal of Marriage and Family 78.4 (2016): 975-995.

Carlson et al. base their argument on the egalitarian discussion about contemporary society that advocates for shared responsibilities between husband and wife. The authors are however quick to point out that sexual satisfaction in families that couples share domestic responsibility is increased as opposed to previous findings. Sexual intimacy the authors say, basing their conclusions on Marital and Relationship Survey, is significantly improved when couples share household duties. A strength of the paper is that it updates findings from previous credible research on intimacy and house duties. The publication does not explicitly establish the correlation between couple intimacy and household chores. The study concludes that households were coupled share responsibilities have increased chances of sexual satisfaction as opposed to the ones where one partner engages in many duties. Family gender roles are evolving rapidly meaning that changes couples who share responsibilities at home are more satisfied than their counterparts who do not.