Is Justice Contextual? Married Women's Perceptions of Fairness of the Division of Household Labor in 12 Nations

Distributive justice theory argues that individuals make fairness decisions partly by comparing themselves to similarly Situated others. Utilizing fixed effects analyses of 4,643 married women nested in 12 nations front the 1991 International Social Justice Project, this paper examines whether the relationship between the division of household labor and perceptions of fairness of that division was informed by Such comparisons. Specifically, this paper tests whether political history, women's political representation, and average division of labor within a nation set expectations for the division of household labor against which married women made fairness determinations. Although political history and women's political representation seem to have been directly influential in constructing fairness determinations in 1991. married women did not seem to use the expectations of (in)equality as comparison referents. The normative division of labor within a nation did not directly or indirectly influence perceptions of fairness. Nations provide a context within which married women make fairness determinations; setting expectations does not seem to have been the mechanism through which context has historically operated. Additional cross-national research on this topic is warranted.