Introduction Division of labour in many families is based on gender differences which impacts the role played by males and females in their household domestic chores. Gender roles are the social constructs which expect certain attributes or characteristics in the personalities of individuals based on their genders, and includes among other things, the activities of males and females and the roles they play (West & Zimmerman, 1991). West and Zimmerman (1991) affirm that these distinct societal perceptions of males and females cause gender differences in their preferences of jobs and the functions they perform at home or at work. Main body In her book, ‘The Second Shift,’ Arlie Hochschild describes what she calls the “Stalled revolution”, a period where women are now working outside the home but the jobs they are going out to and men they coming home to have not changed to accommodate this second shift. Hochschild investigates how working parents are developing strategies to address their daily problems, and incorporates their ideas about gender and their own gender identity. Through a longitudinal study conducted by interviewing and observing several working parents, she tries to investigate their gender ideologies which influence their gender strategies. Among the couples she interviewed and observed were the Tanagawas and the Shermans. Peter and Nina Tanagawa’s marriage is based on transitional ideologies where Nina wants to work and still be committed to doing house work but believes that Peter’s work should come first. They married based on their similar marital values. Nina, an executive mother of two, earns more than her husband and does the house work. Peter works as a technical book sales and suppresses his emotional attachment to his children because he wants Nina to take the leading role as a parent. Hochschild explains how the culture of super mommy is influencing some men not to share the house work (Pg. 24). She argues that the images and articles of working mothers do not reflect the actual experience these mothers go through, as a result of which some men like Peter Tanagawa are influenced to assume the wife (Nina) is capable of handling both, work and home efficiently. Peter claims that Nina should do the house work because she is more interested and competent in it and has personally chosen to put her time and energy into it (Pg. 81). Peter explains that he is not involved in house work because the society portrays the impression that working mothers are competent and do not need help (Pg. 24). Additionally, Peter’s resistance in sharing the house work is also based on societal perception that women are characteristically suited by virtue of their natural energy, competence and emphatic nature to assume the dual responsibility of work, hence, Nina should do the same without his help. When Nina is sick from pneumonia because of her fatigue from balancing work and family, Peter describes Nina’s situation as a result of her circumstances and not her problems. Instead of sharing the house work and assisting Nina, Peter works harder, trying to extend the market for his technical books, even though he does not like his work (Pg. 95). This belief of Peter is endorsed by the fact that ge