Less cooking time, more consumption time: more gender equality?

Abstract

This paper analyses the gender impact of the fourth industrial revolution on domestic work. It focuses on the symbolic dimension of time use related to the set of cooking tasks. The main hypothesis argues that, beyond technological innovation, the decrease in time devoted to cooking evidenced by the statistics responds to the change in daily habits and consumption model. To explore this question, the paper presents a qualitative methodological strategy to analyse the everyday experience and the meaning attributed to housework tasks according to gender, life cycle and social class. Preliminary results show that decrease of cooking tasks emerge new daily habits characterized by spending more time buying food and less time preparing it. The paper concludes that these daily habits continue to represent more work for women according to their structural conditions.