By looking at domestic labor in economic terms, we can better see the economic structures that determine how household work is done. The household has traditionally been outside of the purview of economics, and domestic activity, because it does not generate income, is not included in the economic category of labor. The most convincing argument that the American household is really an economic institution, and that work done there is economic activity, is provided by finding that, as the paid employment of women grows, more and more household services are purchased in the market.
