Understanding structure and culture in the division of household labor for Mexican immigrant families

Abstract

Families in the United States are more ethnically and racially diverse than ever before (Menjívar, 2010). In particular, the Latino population has experienced rapid growth in the United States (Landale & Oropesa, 2007) which has been accompanied by increased research on Latino families. However, many researchers assume that Latino families are traditional and do not culturally vary. Heavy reliance on cultural explanations to explain behavior in Latino families is seen by many researchers as problematic (Menjívar, 2010). Latino family life has been explained by cultural values, such as "familism" or "machismo," whereas structural factors such as lack of access to education or jobs have not always been fully considered. In addition, a lack of comparative research on household labor in Latino and non-Latino families has limited the field's understanding of the relative contributions of culture and social structure to the division of labor. For example, do attitudes toward gender roles or values like family self-reliance (representing "culture") have more influence on parenting and housework in Latino families than social class position or the relative earnings of spouses (representing "structure")? It remains unclear as most studies of the household division of labor have used samples of White (Anglo) Americans and occasionally samples of African Americans, often excluding other racial and ethnic groups or including too few individuals to make valid generalizations (Coltrane, 2000).