Household chores, child-care and home maintenance are the practical issues around which the everyday lives of most couples revolve. Being Married, Doing Gender uses couples' discussions about the family chores to explore the psychological dimensions of life together. Caroline Dryden finds that most couples are keen to present their relationship as a partnership of equals, but closer scrutiny reveals that equality is an unresolved issue and the subject of much psychological conflict.

Set against the literature of gender relations, Being Married, Doing Gender explores marital and personal identity, gender relations and emotional experience in the lives of heterosexual couples. It will be a useful source text for scholars in psychology, sociology and gender studies at all levels.