Opting Out? Who are the Housewives in Contemporary Norway?

The number of housewives has declined significantly in many countries, but there is now renewed interest in the homemaker role among researchers and in the public discourse. Using representative survey data from 2007, we examine the prevalence and characteristics of the housewife in contemporary Norway, a social-democratic country with high gender-equality ambitions and a high demand for labour. Irrespective of the definition used, being a housewife is clearly a minority practice. About one in 10 coupled women of prime working age either regard themselves as home-workers or work for pay for <20 h per week. Housewives are overrepresented among the less educated, those with health limitations, women with many children and young children, non-Western immigrants, and those with a partner with a fairly high income. However, the partners’ aggregate income is lower among housewife couples than among other couples. The analysis does not support the popular notion that there is an increasing trend towards full-time homemaking among highly educated women. The idealization of the housewife role in popular housewife blogs among younger generations of women can be seen as a flirtation with selected elements of the traditional housewife role, rather than as a backlash against gender-equal practices.