(Families & Households)-Couples Flashcards
(36 cards)
What is the traditional division of labor in the nuclear family according to Talcott Parsons?
In the traditional nuclear family, husbands have an instrumental role as breadwinners, while wives have an expressive role focused on primary socialization and emotional support.
What does Parsons argue about the division of labor?
Parsons argues that the division of labor is based on biological differences and is beneficial for men, women, children, and society.
Conjugal roles
What are segregated conjugal roles according to Elizabeth Bott?
Segregated conjugal roles are when couples have separate roles, such as a male breadwinner and a female homemaker, with separate leisure activities.
What are joint conjugal roles?
Joint conjugal roles are when couples share tasks such as housework and childcare and spend leisure time together.
What did Young and Willmott find in their study of traditional working-class families?
They found that men were the breadwinners and played little part in home life, while women were full-time housewives responsible for housework and childcare.
What is the ‘symmetrical family’ according to Young and Willmott?
The symmetrical family is one where the roles of husbands and wives are more similar, but not identical. It involves the wife also working so the husband and wife are a dual earner family and the man is more involved in housework and they share decision making responsibilites.
What reasons did Young and Willmott give for the rise of the symmetrical family?
Reasons include increased employment opportunities for women, geographical mobility, fewer children, and improved living standards.
What criticism did Ann Oakley have regarding Young and Willmott’s findings?
Oakley argued that their claim of increasing symmetry is based on inadequate research and that many men included in their statistics made only minimal contributions to housework.
What did Mary Boulton find regarding men’s roles in childcare?
Boulton found that fewer than 20% of husbands had a major role in childcare, emphasizing that mothers were primarily responsible for children’s well-being.
What did Warde and Hetherington discover about men’s participation in housework?
They found that men would only perform routine ‘female’ tasks when their partners were not around, although younger men showed a slight change in attitude.
What is the ‘march of progress’ view regarding couples and equality?
The ‘march of progress’ view suggests that as women work more, men are becoming more involved in housework and childcare, leading to a more equal division of labor.
What did Jonathan Gershuny find regarding women’s full-time work and domestic labor?
Gershuny found that women working full-time tend to do less domestic work than those who do not.
What did Annette Braun and colleagues find about men’s involvement in childcare?
They found that while men believe they should be more involved in childcare, their actual involvement remains limited.
What are the two explanations for the unequal division of labor identified by Crompton and Lyonette?
The cultural/ideological explanation, which views inequality as shaped by patriarchal norms, and the material/economic explanation, which sees it as a result of economic rationality.
What evidence supports the change in gender roles in order to achieve equality in the cultural explanation for inequality in domestic labor?
Younger men doing more domestic work and the generational shift in attitudes towards housework suggest that norms about gender roles are changing.
What is the relationship between women’s earnings and domestic work?
Evidence suggests that as women earn more, they do less housework. For example, Kan found that for every £10,000 a woman earns a year, she does two hours less housework per week.
What did Arber and Ginn (1995) find regarding middle-class women?
Better-paid, middle-class women were able to buy commercially produced products and services, reducing their time spent on labor-intensive domestic tasks.
What is the inequality in household resource distribution?
There is inequality in how families’ resources are shared between men and women, linked to who controls the family’s income and decision-making power.
What did Barrett and McIntosh (1991) note about men’s financial support?
Men gain more from women’s domestic work than they provide in financial support, and their financial contributions are often unpredictable and come with strings attached.
What did Kempson (1994) find about low-income families?
Women in low-income families often deny their own needs, skipping meals or eating less to make ends meet.
What did Irene Hardill’s study reveal about decision-making in dual-earner households?
In her study, most households prioritized the man’s career in major decisions, but some households exhibited more egalitarian relationships.
What are the four main patterns of money management identified by Jan Pahl?
- Husband-controlled pooling (39 couples) - husband decides spending. 2. Wife-controlled pooling (27 couples) - wife decides spending. 3. Husband control (22 couples) - husband gives housekeeping money. 4. Wife control (14 couples) - more common in low-income households.
What is the most egalitarian type of money management according to Pahl?
Wife-controlled pooling tends to allow for more joint decision-making, although it often occurs in financially tight households.
What perspective focuses on the meanings couples give to money control?
The personal life perspective suggests that the meanings attached to money management can vary, and control does not always signify inequality.
