Marital Commitment and Perceptions of Fairness in Household Chores

We examine how three types of marital commitment-personal, structural, and moral-are associated with perceptions of fairness in chores (N = 1,839 married couples or 3,678 spouses). Using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model, we find distinct relationships by type of marital commitment and gender. For personal commitment, both actor and partner effects were positively associated with wives' perceived fairness of chores, with actor effects more influential to perceptions of fairness for wives versus husbands. For structural commitment, actor and partner effects were negatively associated with husbands' perceived fairness of chores, with actor effects more influential to perceptions of fairness for husbands versus wives. For moral commitment, actor effects were positively associated with husbands' perceived fairness, without any gender differences found. Given that employed wives continue to do the disproportionate amount of housework, we discuss how differences by gender in marital commitment explain perceptions of fairness in household chores.