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Poses the question: what are the consequences of employing a household help on the domestic division of labour? Researches this question by talking to ten couples who employ cleaners. Reports that employing some sort of domestic help has enabled middle‐class women to enter employment in greater numbers than ever before and that it is simply too costly to a family’s economy to have an educated female potential wage‐earner concentrating on unpaid domestic tasks. Refers to a “stalled revolution“, whereby men (theoretically) are carrying out a greater share of domestic tasks but (in actuality) women do not report any great difference. Notes also, that it is increasingly difficult to rely on assistance from relatives. Puts forward reasons for and against the employment of domestic help, as well as four perspectives – the individual perspective, the gender perspective, the general structure of society, and the labour market, and social policy – relating to the consequences of employing a cleaner. Explores “partner‐typology”, determined on a continuum stretching from traditional role‐held beliefs to symmetrical roles for men and women. Concludes that employing domestic help leads to a more equal relationship between the employing couple, that housework is perceived as an increasingly unattractive option, and that new inequalities creep into the gender relationship as it is usually women who perform low‐paid domestic work.

Reviews previous research on factors affecting the choice of using before‐ or after‐tax performance measures to determine executive compensation; and uses regression techniques on a sample of US firms to test the relationship between this choice and various factors suggested by the literature. Shows that after‐tax measures are more likely to be used in service industries and are positively related to firm size, multinational operations, the number of operating segments and capital intensity; but negatively related to leverage. Suggests that firms with more tax planning opportunities use post‐tax performance measures to encourage managers to consider the tax consequences of their actions, but trade off large debt tax shields in favour of other ways to plan tax.