''Queer housewives?'': Some problems in theorising the division of domestic labour in lesbian and gay households

This article attempts to explore some of the difficulties that are present in existing theorisations of the domestic division of labour in lesbian and gay households. Arising from research on heterosexual couple households, which highlights the persistence of the gendered allocation of routine tasks and responsibilities between co-resident spouses, it is argued that research on lesbian and gay households has been narrowly framed. Whilst heterosexual households are theorised as gender-full, lesbian and gay households have been seen as altogether empty of gendering processes and practices. This article points toward more comprehensive ways of theorising the organization of sex/gender, sexuality and household work, and how these might be constitutive of domestic relations in lesbian and gay households. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.