understanding housework in the context of gender roles: Qualitative study

Large part of Iranian women are housewives and they play an important role in maintaining the family and upbringing the children,So it is important to realize about quality of their lives and their perception towards housework.By applying qualitative approach and concentrating on data which is collected by semi deep structured interview from26 housewives aged 23 to 58in Tehran, present research tries to understand the perception of women about housework based on their narratives and their lived experiences. Concluding points of depth interviews reveal that how housework is embedded in culture and social context and it is only explainable by its social background.The way women consider the housework will allow for more theoretical conceptualization. The result of present research shows that women’s satisfaction of doing housework is linked to their satisfaction of marital life and their relationship in marriage. It is also possible to conclude that older women considering housework as a part of their femininity and their natural duties. And those women who are more influenced by ideology of motherhood are less critical of doing housework.In the contrary,younger women become conscious of how housework is related to gender roles and gender inequality. Younger women do believe that unpaid housework should be considered as real work even though it is not structured or organized.