are couples becoming more equal?

Question 1

factors affecting the division of labour/gender roles

Answer 1

sexuality
age
class
culture
women’s working status

Question 2

sexuality

Answer 2

Dunne: Roles more equal in lesbian couples
(no set gender roles)

Question 3

age

Answer 3

Man Yee Kan: younger men do more
housework, changing attitudes, changing
gender socialisation

Question 4

class

Answer 4

-M/C may be less equal – men may do less
housework (Lyonette)

-‘Managing director’ family (Young and Wilmott)
which are less symmetrical (stratified diffusion)

-Commercialisation of housework – M/C can
afford products to make housework easier

Question 5

culture

Answer 5

Gershuny-role models are important
children who grow up with parents who share housework equally more likely to do the same

-Afro-Caribbean men take part in more
housework than white British/Asian men

Question 6

women’s working status

Answer 6

Gershuny: women who work do less housework
Dual burden/triple shift – working women still
responsible for majority of housework/childcare

Question 7

material explanation

Answer 7

-equality in domestic labour will be achieved once women join the workforce and earn as much as their male partners

Question 8

what did sociologist Kan find?

Answer 8

found for every £10,000 more a year a women earns she does 2 hours of less housework a week

Question 9

Arber and Ginn
(material explanations)

Answer 9

middle-class women have the means to afford / buy more products to help with domestic tasks

Question 10

criticisms of family becoming more equal
new man=myth

Answer 10

-Women still do 1 hour more unpaid
labour per day on average than
men
-2/3 women still responsible for
laundry

Question 11

Time use survey 2015 (criticism)

Answer 11

Women still perform approximately 60% of
unpaid work in the home

Question 12

the new right view on gender roles

Answer 12

Traditional gender roles are beneficial in society,
prevents welfare dependency and promotes strong socialisation- golden age of nuclear family
-conservative views

Question 13

feminists view on gender roles

Answer 13

Traditional gender roles
are undesirable and promote
patriarchy, gender roles should be
equal/joint, power, and domestic
division of labour should be
distributed equally

Question 14

postmodernist view on gender roles

Answer 14

Traditional gender
roles have become less important,
there is more freedom to construct
roles that suit the individual (less
pressure to conform to traditional
ideals)