Division of Labour Flashcards
(15 cards)
What did Bott (1957) say the two types of conjugal roles are?
- Segregated conjugal roles - Male and female have separate roles,(expressive, instrumental) , leisure time separate.
- Joint conjugal roles - couples share domestic tasks, spend leisure together.
What did Willmott and Young (1950s) find out about roles?
Carried out research in London, and found that roles were segregated.
- Men were primary earners, and dominated decision making.
- Women were reliant on husband, and had limited decision making.
What is the March of Progress view?
March of Progress (Wilmott and Young): the early industrial family was based on segregated roles but after the industrial revolution, increased gender equality made roles more equal and democratic.
What societal changes caused the March of Progress?
- Mass council house building - reduced support from extended kin, couples had to rely on each-other for domestic roles.
- Women in the work place - fulfilling instrumental role increasing household income, invention of white goods reduced domestic workload.
What are the criticisms of Willmott and Young?
‘The Sociology of Housework’ (1974) - Ann Oakley.
- Found that only 15% of husbands had high levels of participation in house work. 70% of women were dissatisfied with the condition of housework. Many housewives reported feeling lonely due to social isolation.
- Craig (2007) - Women do 50-66% more housework than men.
- Galim and Thompson (2013) 1/10 men do more housework than women.
-
What evidence supports men becoming more active at home?
- 8 times more childcare per day since the 1970s.
- 25% of childcare during the week.
- 35% of childcare at the weekend.
- 25% take emergency time off work.
What evidence does not support men becoming more active at home?
- Men engage in childcare alongside the mothers.
- Women spend more time on the practical things.
- Men spend more time on more enjoyable playing.
What was Edgell’s (1980) - Husband or Wife study about?
Conducted research on decision making in families, focusing on power dynamics between husbands and wives.
His work critiques the symmetrical family concept proposed by Wilmott and Young - arguing power imbalances persist.
What was Edgell’s key findings?
- Husbands decides alone or has a veto with very important decisions.
- Decisions are usually joint, wife rarely acting alone when it comes to important decisions.
- Wife makes most decisions of less importance.
What was Duncombe and Marsdens (1995) study about?
Emotion Work.
They argue domestic roles ignore importance of emotion work.
Emotion work helps sustain the family is often rarely recognized.
Women work a triple shift of paid work, unpaid domestic work and emotion work.
What are some examples of emotion work?
- Planning and organizing social events.
- Smoothing over arguments.
- Physical (hugs) and verbal support ( declarations of love)
How does emotion work impact women?
- They don’t receive gratitude for emotion work whereas men do (Daddy Day Care)
- They express emotional loneliness
- They are 3x more likely to strongly want a divorce than a man, and less likely to want to remarry than a man. Men are net beneficiaries of marriage, women are net losers.
What concept did Gillian Dunne (1999) argue?
Gender Scripts.
Gender scripts refer to the traditional gender norms and expectations associated with heterosexual couples. These match expectations of patriarchal society.
Who did Gillian Dunne (1999) study, and what did she find?
She studied 37 cohabiting lesbian couples.
Gender scripts are more symmetrical withe equal importance to careers and childcare.
Partner with the greatest work commitment spent less time with domestic tasks.
What is the evaluation of Gillian Dunne’s (1999) study?
Suggests that capitalism creates an asymmetrical family, and not the patriarchy.
Couples in both heterosexual, and homosexual couples will often make a rational choice that the highest earner can compensate for this by doing less domestic labour.
Capitalist societies place high value and status on those with the greatest wealth.
