couples Flashcards
(25 cards)
1
Q
Parsons (functionalism)
A
- argues rheee are two specific adult roles within marriage that are essential for smooth running of the household and wider society
- instrumental role: breadwinner, adult male provides for family by working, limited involvement in childcare and household
- expressive role: homemaker, adult female takes care of children and domestic labour, financially dependant on man to provide
- benefits society as allows for primary socialisation of children, economy will continue to grow because workers are well adjusted
2
Q
limitations of Parsons’ argument
A
- outdated: there is now more women in the workforce (dual earner families) and homosexual relationships
- feminists: argue this view is sexist, restricts women’s role to the home and restricts their power
3
Q
Bott (functionalism)
A
- argues there is three types of relationships where partners share the jobs and responsibilities (conjugal roles)
- joint conjugal roles: couples share tasks such as housework and childcare and spend their leisure time together
- segregated conjugal roles: couples have separate roles (male breadwinner and female homemaker) and leisure activities also tend to be separate
- complimentary conjugal roles:
4
Q
limitations of Bott’s argument
A
- outdated: doesn’t apply to new family types (SPF don’t have conjugal roles)
- cannot explain roles performed by other family members (eg grandparents)
5
Q
Young and Willmott (functionalism)
A
- the symmetrical family
- study (structured interviews of families in east london) found evidence of a march of progress (steady improvement in society in a particular area), found 72% men did housework beyond washing up
- families are moving away from segregated conjugal roles and moving towards joint conjugal roles, suggesting a symmetrical family
6
Q
limitations of Young and Willmott’s argument
A
- Oakley’s research still shown that housework is still mainly seen as a ‘women’s task’ in the family
- can’t be generalised to other areas in UK, study only took place in one part of london
7
Q
Oakley (feminism)
A
- challenged Young and Willmott’s research, her interviews found only 15% husbands had high level of participation in housework and only 25% participated in childcare
- acknowledged that men are helping more but did not take this as evidence of family moving towards symmetry
8
Q
strengths of Oakley’s argument
A
- supported by Delphy’s research, found women perform 57 unpaid tasks for men
9
Q
limitations of Oakley’s argument
A
- used interviews to research men’s role in the household - data could lack validity (right answerism, bias, lying)
10
Q
Gershuny
A
- analysed household’s data 1970’s-1980’s and found gradual increase in amount of domestic labour performed by men, particularly when wives were in paid employment
- argued there has been a lagged adaptation (a time lag between women taking up paid work and men making a greater contribution to domestic labour)
- eg women who did not work did 83% of housework, women who worked full time did 73% of housework
11
Q
limitations of Gershuny
A
- Morris: critical of idea that taking part in paid work decreases amount of housework women do at home
- women who now work face a dual burden where they are expected to perform two roles instead of one
- suggests roles within family are still unequal despite changes in women’s position
12
Q
Duncombe and Marsden
A
- conducted a study of 40 white couples in one area who had been married 15 years
- found women made emotional effort while men devalue it (men prioritised work and failed to take emotional responsibility at home)
- therefore argued women work triple shift: housework, paid work, emotional work
13
Q
limitations of Duncombe and Marsden’s argument
A
- unrepresentative sample
14
Q
Lader and Kan
A
- Lader’s time survey found women in paid employment spend on average 21 hours per week on housework compared to only 12 hours spent by men, provides little evidence to suggest the gender division of labour is changing
- Kan’s housework survey on 2000 couples found better paid, younger and better educated women did less housework, for every £10,000 a woman earned on their salary, housework time decreased by 2 hours, Kan said this was because a higher income gave a woman more bargaining power in the family
15
Q
Fatherhood (Burghes and Beck)
A
- in early 1990’s many sociologists concluded the role of father was changing: more likely to attend birth, take paternity leave and play a greater gender role in childcare compared to their own fathers
- Burghes: found fathers were taking on an increasing role in the emotional development of their children, however, it is important not to exaggerate men’s role in childcare as it is still largely seen as a female role
- Beck: fathers can no longer rely on their job to provide sense of identity and fulfilment, so increasingly look to their children to give them a sense of identity and purpose
16
Q
Fatherhood (Gray)
A
- Gray from that many fathers would like to spend more time with their children but are prevented by working long hours to bond effectively with the children
17
Q
Lesbian couples and gender scripts (Dunne)
A
- study of 37 lesbian couples with dependant children compared to heterosexual women
- found that compared to heterosexual women, they were more likely to describe their relationship as equal, share housework and childcare equally, and childcare positively and gave equal importance to both partners careers
- argued that this is because heterosexual people are under pressure to conform too deeply ingrained masculine or feminine gender script by performing different kinds of domestic tasks that confirm their identities, whereas lesbian relationship household tasks are not linked to gender scripts, allowing them to create a more equal relationship
18
Q
limitations of Dunne’s argument
A
- unrepresentative sample
19
Q
Resources / £ in households (Barret)
A
- found that men gained far more from women’s domestic work then they give back in financial support, financial support given by husband to their wives is often unpredictable and comes with strings attached, they also found that memoir usually the ones with more authority to make decisions because they were the wage earners
20
Q
Decision making in households (Edgell)
A
- conducted research on professional couples and identified three types of decision-making practices
- very important decisions: decided by the husband who brought in the main source of income (eg moving house)
- important decisions: jointly decided by both partners as they affect everyone in the family (eg holidays)
- less important decisions: made by wife such as the food the family would eat and clothes they would buy
21
Q
limitations of Edgell’s argument
A
- liberal feminists: outdated, more women occupied careers and higher positions, so relationships are more likely to rely on joint decisions
22
Q
personal life perspective (Smart)
A
- found that in some same-sex couples, partners did not attach any importance to who controlled the finances and we’re happy to leave this to their partners, they did not consider this as the basis of inequality in their relationship
- argued there was greater freedom for same-sex couples to manage their money effectively as they do not enter relationships with the gendered, heterosexual, and cultural meaning which considers money as a source of power
23
Q
Domestic violence (Dobash and Dobash)
A
- conducted a study of 109 unstructured interviews with women who had been the victims of domestic violence in Scotland
- found that the incident would often set off by women challenging their male partners authority, and that men, marriage legitimises violence on women due to the dependency of the wife and the authority of the husband
24
Q
Domestic violence (Yearnshire)
A
- victims are unwilling to report incidents
- found that women suffer an average of 35 assaults from their partners before filing a report
25
Domestic violence (Cheal)
- police and prosecutors are reluctant to be become involved in family affairs
- Cheal argues at the police and other state agencies assume that the family is a private sphere so access of the state should be limited
- official crime statistics show that between 2006-2011, the conviction rates for the incident of domestic violence reported to the police was only 6.5%
