Housework has been a gold mine for research. Searching Sociological Abstracts online identifies more than 1,000 articles on the topic. The twenty-first century, however, has taken research in a new direction. There are now more studies on how couples in other countries divide the work around the house, including studies of non-Western societies such as China. Instead of simply putting couples' housekeeping under a microscope, researchers are switching to a wide-angle lens.