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Relating Intimacies pp 189–221Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

What Difference Does ‘Difference’ Make? Lesbian Experience of Work and Family Life

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Abstract

This chapter1 draws on an in-depth study of divisions of labour between lesbian parents to provide alternative insights into the reproduction of gender inequality in work and family life. By focusing on their experiences as women the study seeks to counter a tendency in academic feminism to treat lesbian experience as ‘other’ or ‘different’ (see discussion in Dunne, 1997a). A central premise informing the research is that the exploration of the circumstances of non-heterosexual people tell us as much about the workings of gender in the mainstream as it does about the experience of living ‘difference’.

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Authors
  1. Gillian A. Dunne
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Comparative and Applied Social Sciences (CASS), University of Hull, UK

    Julie Seymour (Lecturer in Social Research) (Lecturer in Social Research)

  2. Department of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds, UK

    Paul Bagguley (Senior Lecturer in Sociology) (Senior Lecturer in Sociology)

Copyright information

© 1999 British Sociological Association

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Dunne, G.A. (1999). What Difference Does ‘Difference’ Make? Lesbian Experience of Work and Family Life. In: Seymour, J., Bagguley, P. (eds) Relating Intimacies. Explorations in Sociology. British Sociological Association Conference Volume Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-27683-7_9

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