The home jobs do raise another important question. Why do men and women seem to have different types of home jobs? It appears that although gender is not necessarily linked to being self-employed or owning one’s own business, the types of businesses and the income earned do vary by gender. Thus certain occupations and job types are en-gendered. As engendering occurs, it erects barriers to the type of employment options that are potentially available to all people.

Qualitative investigations could help explain why people choose home jobs and how this could be gender-related. When home jobs are lumped together into broad categories of occupations or industries, such distinctions concerning the meaning of the work to the individual and her or his family are covert. home jobs within similar occupations or industries, regardless of whether they are women or men, could have quite different motivations, plans, and commitments to their work and its relation to other aspects of their lives such as children, household chores, marriage, or other personal relationships.

The social construction of gender might be different within homes where home jobs for pay is conducted and those where it is not. Elucidating these differences for use in educational programs will help current and potential families to understand the consequences of home jobs to each of its family members. All family members can find satisfaction in economic, social, and psychological terms more easily if they understand and discuss the underlying nature of home jobs. Men and women can modify their attitudes and behavior when open discussion clarifies the issues.

Gender effects on income are similar in home jobs and employment away from the home–men earn more than do women. Further investigation into gender linked issues such as motivations for home jobs in general and choice of specific types of jobs in particular might clarify whether biases are operating in obtaining of capital, in training, or in other areas that determine occupational opportunities. That is, do women and men have different types of home jobs because of gender biases in the society, or do women and men choose their type of home jobs for other reasons? One of these other reasons might be gender ideology. Given the culture of the time and place, do women and men have free choice in their employment? Are some avenues of income earning closed off to members of one gender or the other? Or, do men and women have differing interests in working at or owning particular types of home jobs?