The inequitable distribution of domestic and caring labour in different-sex couples has been a longstanding feminist concern. Some have hoped that having both partners at home during the COVID-19 pandemic would usher in a new era of equitable work and caring distributions. Contrary to these hopes, old patterns seem to have persisted. Moreover, studies suggest this inequitable distribution often goes unnoticed by the male partner. This raises two questions. Why do women continue to shoulder a disproportionate amount of housework and childcare despite economic and cultural gains? And why is there a widespread one-sided misrepresentation within different-sex couples about how domestic and caring work is distributed between the two partners? We answer these questions by appealing to affordance perception – the perception of possibilities for action in one's environment. We propose an important gender disparity in the perception of affordances for domestic tasks such as the dishwasher affording emptying, the floor affording sweeping and a mess affording tidying. We argue that this contributes not only to the inequitable distribution of domestic labour but to the frequent invisibility of that labour. We explore the consequences of this hypothesis for resistance and social change.

中文翻译：

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性别负担观念和不平等的家务劳动

不同性别夫妇家务劳动和照料劳动的不平等分配一直是女权主义者长期关注的问题。一些人希望，在新冠肺炎 (COVID-19) 大流行期间，夫妻双方都呆在家里，将迎来一个公平工作和关爱分配的新时代。与这些希望相反，旧的模式似乎仍然存在。此外，研究表明这种不公平的分配常常被男性伴侣忽视。这提出了两个问题。尽管经济和文化取得了进步，为什么女性仍然承担过多的家务和育儿工作？为什么不同性别的伴侣对于两个伴侣如何分配家务和照顾工作存在普遍的片面误解？我们通过诉诸可供性感知来回答这些问题——即对在一个人的环境中采取行动的可能性的感知。我们提出，在对家务任务的认知上存在着重要的性别差异，例如洗碗机需要清空，地板需要清扫，混乱需要整理。我们认为，这不仅导致了家务劳动的不公平分配，而且导致了这种劳动经常被忽视。我们探讨了这一假设对抵抗和社会变革的影响。