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DOUBLE BURDEN
A term used to describe the situation of women who perform paid work outside the domestic sphere as well as homemaking and child-care work inside the home. Since domestic work is private and outside the cash economy, it is not remunerated and this causes it to appear as something less than real work and as part of the natural gender role of women. Canadian studies have consistently demonstrated that women perform by far the largest share of this domestic work and are thus subjected to demands greater than those typically imposed on male workers. Some feminists have advocated wages for housework as a necessary step to gain recognition for this work that women do in the private world of family and household.

Last updated 2002--0-9-


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Athabaca University ICAAP

© Robert Drislane, Ph.D. and Gary Parkinson, Ph.D.
The online version of this dictionary is a product of
Athabasca University and
ICAAP

*This social science dictionary has 1000
entries covering the disciplines of sociology, criminology, political
science and women's study with a commitment to Canadian examples and
events and names