48 minutes / Color
Release: 1995
Copyright: 1995
Should you tell your partner "I love you" by sending flowers? Or by doing the dishes!
As dual incomes become necessary to meet today's family's expenses, increasingly more women continue to enter the work force. With both partners working outside the home, how do they share work inside the home? CHORE WARS light-heartedly looks at the housework dilemma of the '90s by going into four homes to find out who does the laundry, washes the dishes, mows the lawn, vacuums carpets, parents, - and trains the kids on how to do chores.
These scenes are intercut with "couple-in-the-street" interviews, dramatizations of the couples' experiences, and television ads from past decades. CHORE WARS also features commentary by Dr. John Gottman, a psychologist from the University of Washington; and Dr. Arlie Hochschild, a sociologist and author of THE SECOND SHIFT. Their insights into the sociological and emotional significance of chores reveal just why the struggle over who does the dishes is so important in society today.
"A delightful combination of humour and information. While entertaining, the film effectively raises complex and serious issues facing women and men in North America and elsewhere." - Gillian Creese, Chair, Women's Studies Programme, University of British Columbia
"CHORE WARS is a charming documentary... it has a lovely, light tone and is chock-full of frank and fresh interviewees..." - Globe and Mail (Toronto)
"A humorous and enlightening film about domestic chores and sex roles." - Teaching Sociology
Select Accolades
A film about the Philippines' second largest export product - maternal love - and how the international trade in love and care affects the women involved, their families, and families in the West.
Marije Meerman | 2002 | 50 minutes | Color | English | English subtitles
Seven Brazilian teenagers film their housemaids, exposing issues of class, race, and gender in their families, and in their country.
Gabriel Mascaro | 2013 | 76 minutes | Color | English | English subtitles
