Who chooses who does what and who gets what? Why should policy makers care about men and women having equal opportunities to participate in paid work? In Becker’s rational choice model, the family is viewed as a single entity with common preferences. All family members work together to maximise the well-being of the family unit, and to achieve maximum returns, Becker argues, members participate in a strict “sexual division of labour” -one partner (typically the man) specialises in paid labour, while the other (typically the woman) specialises in unpaid housework.