What and How are we Measuring When we Research Gendered Divisions of Domestic Labor? Remaking the Household Portrait Method into a Care/Work Portrait

Andrea Doucet and Janna Klostermann
Additional contact information
Andrea Doucet: Brock University, Canada
Janna Klostermann: University of Calgary, Canada

Sociological Research Online, 2024, vol. 29, issue 1, 243-263

Abstract: The porous and shifting boundaries within and between care and work concepts, and practices and their related measurement complexities call for innovative conceptual and methodological approaches to research on work and care. This article details how we reconfigured the Household Portrait – a qualitative, participatory, visual, creative method that engages couples in mapping and discussing their household and care tasks and responsibilities – into a Care/Work Portrait. Informed by conceptual shifts in care theories, the Care/Work Portrait offers theoretical and methodological advantages for studying gendered divisions and relations of household work and care. It attends to unpaid care work/paid work/paid care work intra-connections, moves outside the household to include community-based work, deepens distinctions between tasks and responsibilities, and considers wider forms and contexts of care. This method goes beyond who does what tallies to bring forth relational, temporal, spatial stories about people’s complex care/work configurations and the specific contexts, constraints, supports, and structuring conditions of their lives.

Keywords: care circles; care responsibilities; creative and visual methodologies; gender divisions of household work and care; household portrait; unpaid care work and paid work (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13607804231160740 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socres:v:29:y:2024:i:1:p:243-263

DOI: 10.1177/13607804231160740

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Sociological Research Online
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().