Couples Flashcards
(26 cards)
Resources and decision making in households - Barrett + McIntosh
Men gain a lot more from unpaid domestic work then they actually give back in financial support
The financial support women get their husbands are often
There’s often ‘strings attached’ in order to gain that financial support
Resources and decision making - kempson
Among WC families, women deny their own needs
Many households, women have no entitlement to share their own resources in her own right
Even average income families, resources may be shared unequally leaving women in poverty
Resources and decision making - Vogler and pooling
Both parties have access to income and joint responsibility, deciding on what to spend on
Resources and decision making - Vogler and allowance system
Men give their wives an allowance from their budget to meet the family needs
Resources and decision making - finch and women structures
Women’s lives tend to be structured around their husbands and family
Resources and decision making - Edgell
Very important decisions: finance, jobs, changing house and moving all decided by the husband
Important decisions: children’s education, holiday planning either done together or just the wife
Less important decisions: home decor, lunch and children’s clothing decided by wife
Explain two reasons why there are inequalities in decision making
Men earn more money than women so they have the financial power which justifies their domination in decision making
Women that had professional jobs and high earning jobs had an equal say in decision making by 1995 70% of couples
Domestic division of labour - Functionalist, Parsons
The husband has the instrumental role, the wife has an expressive role
Husband is breadwinner, earning the income for the family. Wife looks after the children and does all the housework. This is based on the biological differences because women are ‘naturally’ more nurturing and men are stronger
AO3
Young and Wilmott - men are doing more housework and women are becoming wage earners
Feminists - division of labour is not natural and only benefits men
Domestic division of labour - Functionalist, Bott
Segregated and conjugal roles, joint conjugal roles
Couples have separate roles, male breadwinner and female housewife: leisure activities are separate. Couples share tasks like housework and childcare
AO3
Parsons believe that joint conjugal roles are wrong
Domestic division of labour - Functionalist, Young and Wilmott
Housework and childcare is gradually becoming shared and equal. Slow progression to a symmetrical family
Society norms are changing and standards of living. Women are bringing another wage so both need another income to make a living
AO3
Feminists reject this idea and don’t think much has changed, they think that the symmetrical family is exaggerated. Men dont do enough work
Domestic division of labour - Feminist, Oakley
Separated roles are unevenly distributed
Family and society are male dominated. Husbands usually take care of children in a playful way instead of actually doing housework
Women experience dual burden
AO3
Ignores the fact that some women want to be housewives
Feminist POV on housework
Rejects Y+W view on symmetrical families
Oakley found that husbands contribute to household but it was very minimal such as playing with kids
Boutlon found that less than 20% of husbands had a major role in childcare
Same-sex couples and gender scripts
Radical feminists - argue that heterosexual relationships are patriarchal and never be equal
Dunne - studied 37 lesbian couples with children and found a more equal division of labour. This is because heterosexuals are under pressure to conform to gender scripts
Gender scripts: men and women have different roles to fulfill and follow. It’s like a script
Explaining the division of labour - cultural explanation
Equality will only be achieved if norms and values of society change and shift leading to a knock on effect on attitudes, role models etc..
Gershuny - couples are more likely to share housework if their parents did
British social attitudes survey - suggested that less than 10% under 35s agreed with the traditional gender roles of labour but over 65% did. This shows a change in cultural attitudes towards division of labour
Explaining the division of labour - material explanations
Equality is achieved if women joined the labour force and earn as much as their partners
Arder and Ginn - better paid middle-class women could afford nannies and cleaning devices meaning that they dont have to do as much
Ramos - men do more domestic tasks if they are unemployed and the women is the main breadwinner
The impact of paid work
More than 3/4 who are in a relationship/married are working
This contrasts to when more than 50% women were jobless back in 1974 - Oakley
March of Progress view on paid work
Gershuny - housewives did 83% of the housework whereas those who were employed did 73% of housework which shows a gradual share of house duties. This value got even smaller the longer women worked
The gap between men and women are become smaller progressing towards equality
Feminist view on the impact of paid work
Disagrees with the MOP and dismiss their findings. Lots of research shows that women still have the main duties towards childcare
- Ferril + Smith: men take responsibility of childcare in 4% of households
- Braun et al: the father was the main carer in 3/70 families
Dual burden
Women having to do paid work and housework
Morris - found that unemployed men avoided housework bc it degraded their masculinity
Gregson and Lowe - MC families had the privilege to hire nannies and cleaners to carry out domestic labour and childcare
They argued that WC women could not afford this privilege so they are left with the dual burden
Triple shift
Duncombe and Mardsen - Women having the endure paid work, housework and providing emotional support
Domestic violence
Physical and emotional abuse in a relationship that is a pattern consisting of coercive, controlling and threatening behaviour
40% of men experience DV
Women are more likely to experience DV
Evidence of DV
Dobash and Dobash - interviewed victims and found that they were slapped, pushed, beaten, raped or even killed by their husbands
This is because women challenged her husbands authority
Differences in DV
Walby and Allen: women are much more likely to be victims of multiple incidents of abuse
Ansara and Hindin: women are much more likely to be psychologically affected by abuse
Yearnshire: a women experiences on average 35 assaults before reporting. They’re also less likely to report the abuse to the police so official stats are unrepresentative of the group
