A Study on the Commodity Substitution of Housework

가사노동의 상품대체에 관한 연구

In this study the phenomenon of commodity substitution of housework is approach in the contexts of economic system, patriachal family system and housework-related human resources. the objectives of this study are as follows: (1) To measure the level of commodity substitution of housework in large cities. (2)To investigate the factors influencing commodity substitution of housework. The samples were composed of 982 housewives dwelling in 6 large cities including Seoul. The statistics used for data analysis were frequency distribution, percetile. multiple regression analysis. The major findings are the following; (1) When the housework was divided into two subdomains , in the domain of food the purchase level was for below average while in the domain of clothes, the level was quite higher than average. This result hows that commodity substitution has become more common in the domain of clothes by mass production of clothes on a commercial scale. (2) the level of commodity substitution of housework was influenced by the family attribute variables such as housewife's age, family income. housewife's education, family types, housewife's brought-up regions, presence of sewing machine, employment status of housewife, by one patriarchal norm variable such as home-orientedness, and by tow human resource variables such as importance of housework and household tasks performance competnecy. Among variables house wife's age was the most influential one and such variables as family income, housewife's education, household task performance competency, importance of housework, and home-orientedness were also important. Considering that the influence of home-orientedness demonstrates the importance of patriarchy and that importance of housework and that performance competency also are determined by the patriarchal variables such as sex-role attitude and home-orientedness, we can conclude that Hartmann's theoretical approach with which the changes of housework were explained in the two contexts of economic system and family system is applied to the changes of housework in Korea.