FAMILIES TOPIC 1 - COUPLES Flashcards
(5 cards)
The domestic division of labour
Parsons - the domestic division of labour based on biological differences, beneficial to both men AND women
Instrumental roles - male, achieving success at work, breadwinner
Expressive roles - female, primary socialisation, emotional needs, homemaker
Bott - the two roles within marriage
Segregated conjugal roles - couples have separate roles (such as in parsons’ view)
Joint conjugal roles - couples share tasks such as housework and childcare and spend leisure time together
Young and willmott (criticism of parsons) - take a march of progress view. They argue that there has been a long term trend away from segregated conjugal roles with joint conjugal roles emerging in popularity alongside the symmetrical family.
Women now go out to work, but this may be part-time
Men now help out with housework
Couples spend leisure time together
Feminist sociologists reject march of progress view. Oakley argues that their claims are exaggerated and most husbands that she interviewed helped their wives with housework only once a week. Only 15% of husbands had high level of participation.
Couples are becoming more equal
In contrast to oakley’s 1970s study, many women today go out to work either full time or part time.
Gershuny - women working full time is leading to a more equal division of labour in the home. Using time studies, he found that women who participated in paid work did less domestic labour.
These trends reflect changes in attitude to traditional division of labour. The british social attitudes survey found a fall in the number of people who think it is the man’s job to earn money and the woman’s job to look after the home and family.
Couples are not becoming more equal
Feminist view - women going into paid work has not lead to greater equality in the division of labour. Duncombe and marsden adapted the theory of the dual burden popularised by Oakley to include Hochschild’s identification of the emotional work women are responsible for - instead calling it the triple shift of paid work, domestic work and emotional work.
Crompton and lyonette - the two explanations for the unequal division of labour.
The cultural explanation refers to the patriarchal norms that shape gender roles in our culture. Gershuny found that couples whose parents had a more equal relationship were more likely share housework equally themselves. Dunne found that lesbian couples had a more symmetrical relationship due to absence of gender scripts.
The material explanation - women generally earn less than men and therefore it is economically rational for women to do more housework. Sullivan found that working full time rather than part time makes the biggest difference in determining the amount of domestic work performed by each partner.
Resources and decision making
Barrett and mcIntosh - men gain far more from women’s domestic work than they give back for financial support and often this financial support is unpredictable and comes with strings attached.
Kempson - in low income families, women denies their own needs such as eating smaller portions to make ends meet.
Pahl and vogler - identify two types of control over family income - allowance system - men give their wives allowance out of which they have to budget to meet needs while men keep surplus. Pooling - both partners have access to income and joining responsibility to spending (BECOMING MORE POPULAR)
Edgell - found that very important decisions are made by the man alone while important decisions are made by both parties with men getting the final say.
Smart - some gay men and lesbians attached no importance to who controlled the money. They did not see money as a symbol of equality within a relationship.
Domestic violence and abuse
Domestic violence is too widespread to be the work of a few disturbed individuals
Domestic violence does not just occur randomly.
Dobash and dobash - violent incidents could be set off by what the husband saw as a threat to their authority such as his wife asking why he was late home.
The radical feminist explanation
Millet and firestone - the key division in society is between men and women. Men are the enemy, the oppressors, and exploiters of women.
The family and marriage are the key institutions in patriarchal society
Widespread domestic violence is the inevitable feature of patriarchal society.
The ignore the impact of social groups - the office of national statistics found that women from some social groups such as young women, lower social classes, alcoholics or disabled people are more likely to be victims
The materialist explanation:
Wilkinson and pickett - domestic violence is the result of stress on family members caused by social inequality such as worries about money, jobs and housing
Shows that not all people are equally in danger of suffering from domestic violence
Does not explain why women are more likely to be victims which is why marxist feminists are more useful in their explanations
