Division of Household Labor and Perceived Justice: A Growing Field of Research

The research on the perception of fairness and justice of the division of household labor is reviewed. The first part briefly summarizes the main findings about the division of housework, and the main explanations that account for the imbalance between women and men. The following review of studies on the perception of justice of the division of housework is subdivided in two parts. The first subsection deals with studies that considered justice evaluations as the dependent variable and explored factors that contribute to the perception of injustice. The second subsection focuses on studies that considered perception of fairness as the independent variable and explored associations between perceptions of injustice and other consequences of the division of housework. The third part comments critically on the available research and suggests potentially fruitful lines and questions of future research.