2 How Women Negotiate Love is blind: But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun! —Romeo and Juliet Love is calculating: Girls marry merely to better themselves, to borrow a significant vulgar phrase, and have such perfect power over their hearts not to permit themselves to fall in love till a man with a superior fortune offers. —Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Women
WE HAVE SEEN HOW THE TRADITIONAL SEXUAL DIVISION OF labor in the home stands in the way of women's equality. Where does that division of labor come from? How does it find its way inside our houses? Social scientists who have studied how people run their households find that how those people's parents lived and their cultural surroundings make a difference (for example, Goldscheider and Waite, 1991). Early experiences shape your expectations of the future, what you will do at home, and what your spouse and children will do. However, you don't automatically get what you expect. The other grown-up in the couple has expectations, too. They might not be consistent with yours. Also, children have surprisingly stubborn minds of their own. Circumstances can foil expectations, too. They can take a turn for the better or the worse, or turn topsy-turvy. If you win the lottery, you suddenly have lots of money to spend. If the main earner in the family breaks both ankles and can't do his job, things will change at home, at least for a few months. If
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