What did Harkness (2005) find about working mothers with children in relation to housework?

• A. They do twice as many hours as their partners.
• B. They do half as many hours as their partners.
• C. They share housework equally with their partners.
• D. They do no housework.

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is the gendered division of domestic labour: even when mothers work outside the home, they tend to take on a larger share of housework than their partners. Harkness found that working mothers with children spend about twice as many hours on housework as their partners. This finding illustrates the persistent imbalance in unpaid domestic labour and supports the idea of the “second shift,” where women juggle paid work with a heavier load of home duties. It helps explain why mothers often feel a double burden.

So, this result is stronger than the idea of equal sharing, or of mothers doing less work, or doing none at all. It shows that work outside the home does not fully compensate for the unequal distribution of housework.