Gender and distance between intention and action

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the perceptions of men and women on the compatibility between paid jobs and family, from the standpoint of gender relations. Based upon the results of a survey carried out in Brazil in 2004, it is examined whether there is a rapport between more equalitarian perceptions regarding gender and more shared attitudes regarding household work. There is also an attempt to identify the weight and the extent to which various factors (e.g. cultural, socioeconomic, and demographic) are relevant to the existence of values and routine practices that entail the perception of more balanced and symmetrical marital relations. Keywords: Gender and family; Household work; Women and labor market. Presentation The purpose of this article is to present some results of the research "Gender, Labor and Family in Brazil", based on a survey performed in the end of 2003, with a representative sample of the Brazilian population. The survey is a portion of an international research that the ISSP -International Social Science Programconducted in order to identify the transformations that have been occurring with regard to gender, based on the reconciliation dynamics between family life and paid work. The research sought to investigate the perceptions that women and men have of such reconciliation and involved aspects related to the exercise of motherhood and of fatherhood; conjugality, the division of home work and the satisfaction with family life and with work. A set of questions addressed specifically to the inquired that lived with their spouses sought to gather the perceptions of such individuals regarding the division of home work, by means of questions on home tasks and activities with the children. In previous works (Araújo and Scalon, 2004 and In the first part, to the light of a succinct descriptive analysis, we present the core features of the perceptions of the interviewees regarding gender equality and the reconciliation between paid labor and family life. 3 Then, we analyze how some domestic practices involved in such reconciliation are conducted in the everyday life of the interviewed couples. The second part seeks to establish possible correlations between the different factors that influence the perceptions, values and practices reported by the interviewees, based on the use of multivariate analyses. Finally, we conclude indicating the main features that are currently valid in Brazil with regard to the topic. Profile of the Studied Populatio