Domestic Division Of Labour

Question 1

Are couples more equal?
- NO (4)

Answer 1

Oakley
- fathers’ role was seen as ‘taking an interest’
- 15% of husbands had high level of participation in housework and 25% in childcare

Dex and Ward
- support Boulton’s study
- high involvement with 3-year-olds (78% played with child), only 1% took responsibility of sick child

Hochschild
- women required to perform emotion work
Duncombe and Marsden
- performing triple shift

Southerton
- women face dual burden from ‘de-routinised’

Question 1

Are couples more equal?
- YES (4)

Answer 1

Willmott and Young
- carried out a study on extended families in east London, in 1950s, found pattern of segregated conjugal roles. In 1973, this moved to a trend towards joint conjugal roles

Sullivan
- analysis of data collected over 25-year period. in 1975, 82% of husbands worked full time with their wife unemployed compared to 73% in 1997

British social attitudes survey
- ‘who does the laundry’ in 1994 only 1% said the man, compared to 6% in 2012.

Future foundations
- study of 1,000 adults found 60% of men claimed to do more housework than their father and 75% of women claimed to do less than their mother

Question 2

Evidence for the cultural explanation
- Socialisation

Answer 2

Gershuny
- ‘lagged adaption’

Question 3

Evidence for the cultural explanation
- shift in social attitudes

Answer 3

British attitudes survey
- less than 10% of under 35s agreed with trad division of labour compared to 30% of over 65s

Question 4

Evidence for the cultural explanation
- equality in society/ sexuality

Answer 4

Dunne
- lesbian couples more symmetrical, no ‘gender scripts’
- heterosexuals under pressure t conform to these scripts

Question 5

Evidence for the material explanation
- CPOW

Answer 5

Man Ye Kan
- every £10,000 a year more a women earns, she does two hours less housework per week

Question 6

Evidence for the material explanation
- High standards of living

Answer 6

Arber and Gin
- mc women able to afford childcare when went out to work, wc cannot

Question 7

Evidence for the material explanation
- New technology

Answer 7

Silver and Schor
- goods and services that housewives previously had to produce themselves are now mass produced and supplied by supermarkets
-e.g. freezers, ovens reduce amount of domestic labour

Question 8

Is money management within the family equal between men and women?
- Equal

Answer 8

Pahl and Vogler
- allowance system-men gives wives an allowance out of which they have to budget
- pooling-access to income and joint responsibility for spending

Question 9

Is money management within the family equal between men and women?
- Unequal

Answer 9

Barrett and Mclntosh
- men gain far more from women’s domestic work than they give back in financial support.
- men usually make important decision about spending

Kempson
- women would often ‘go without’ to allow other family members to access resources

Question 10

Is decision making within the family equal between men and women?
- Equal

Answer 10

Gershuny
- by 1995, 70% of couples said they had an equal say in decisions

Question 11

Is decision making within the family equal between men and women?
- Unequal

Answer 11

Pahl and Vogler
- pooled income controlled, men make major financial decision

Hardill
- studied 30 dual-earner professional couples, his career took priority when moving house for job

Edgell
- studied professional couples, important decisions made by man, less important done by the wife

Question 13

Perspective on money
(3)

Answer 13

Personal life perspective
- focuses on the meanings couples give to money, meanings are not fixed

Smart
- gay men and lesbians attached no importance to who controlled the money = greater freedom for same sex couples to negotiate roles

Weeks et al
- studied gay couples and found system of money management

Question 14

Domestic violence is too widespread

Answer 14

Women’s aid federations
- accounts for between 1/6 and 1/4 of all recorded violent crimes

Crimes Survey for England
- 2.1 million people report being victims of domestic abuse
- estimated less than 24% is reported to police

Question 15

Domestic violence does not occur randomly

Answer 15

Coleman et al
- women were more likely to experience stalking, partner abuse, family abuse and sexual assault

• Coleman and Osborne
• two women a week are killed by a partner or ex-partner

Question 16

Domestic violence
- patterns

Answer 16

Gender - women
- Coleman et al found women more likely to experience partner abuse, family abuse, sexual assault, stalking

Social class - working class
- wc more likely to be victims

Age - children
- Hughes found in 90% of DV, children were in the same or the next room. In over 50%, children were also directly abused
- each week 1 child will be killed by their parent or carer in England and Wales

Question 17

Explanations for domestic violence
- Marxist feminists

Answer 17

Ansley
- wives = ‘takers of shit’

Question 18

Explanations of Domestic violence
- Materialist explanations

Answer 18

Wilkinson and Pickett
- DV the result of stress on family members causes by social inequality
- e.g. low income families are overcrowded = higher levels of stress

Wilkinson and Mirless-Black
- not all people are equally in danger
- those with less power, status, wealth or income are at greatest risk

Question 19

Explanations for domestic
- radical feminists

Answer 19

Millet and Firestone
- ‘men are the enemy’ and use threat of violence to dominate women

Dobash and Dobash
- in patriarchal societies there is still cultural support for the view that men have a ‘right’ to ‘discipline’ their wives or partners