(New) Family Formation and the Organisation of Food in Households: Who Does What and Why?

Abstract

The provision and preparation of food and meals are highly gendered activities which are invested with practical and symbolic importance in our everyday social lives. This is very evident within a family context where food-related activities are traditionally understood to be the responsibility of women (Lake et al. 2006). As evidenced by current UK government campaigns concerned with rising levels of childhood obesity (Cavendish 2008), mothers in particular are held increasingly accountable for the health-related consequences associated with family feeding. Indeed, ‘the ethical possibilities around the provision of nutritious foods are likely to be made more evident in women who, through discourses on motherhood, have been given the responsibility of providing food — and “good” food at that — to the family’ (Coveney 2000: 156). Although amongst heterosexual couples and within some families there is evidence that (some) men are becoming more engaged with meal preparation, they are likely to reside in middle-class families (Warde and Hetherington 1994) and to be in relationships without children (Kremmer et al. 1998). Furthermore, any involvement tends to be highly selective and generally does not include responsibility for day-to-day, routine, tasks.