Gender roles and relationships Flashcards
(30 cards)
Domestic labour
-Traditional views, e.g functionalism suggest domestic labour is more suited to women due to their biological traits
-Typified by Parsons’s Sex Role Theory where women are encouraged to take on the expressive role
Cost of domestic labour
-Women’s unpaid labour accounts for £700 billion of this total
-Marxist feminist suggests this serves the needs of capitalism as this ‘free labour’ which allows finances to be focused on the wider economy and increases consumption of goods and services by families
Why do women do more?
-Gender pay gap- when deciding on cutting down hours in employment, men will earn more and therefore women are more likely to reduce hours in work
-2019 Labour Force Survey= 3 in 10 women reduce working hours in comparison to 1 in 20 men for childcare provision
Feminism of domestic labour
-Oakely= women’s dual burden in her study of conventional family
-Delphy and Leonard= unpaid labour produced by women was a form of oppression that served the needs of men
Evaluations of domestic labour
-Other factors contribute to variations on amount of unpaid labour completed by men and women, e.g, social class
-Kan and Laurie= amounts of unpaid labour often reliant upon level of education of women compared with their partners
-Crompton and Lynette= income level of women also indicates level of unpaid labour men and women will perform
Who performs emotional labour?
-Duncombe and Marsden= emotional work of looking after family often falls onto women
-Men were focused on their role as provider and didn’t openly express emotions for their partners and children
-Women left with an emotional burden as well as a ‘triple shift’
Parsons’ Sex Role Theory
-Emotional support became part of the expressive role- supporting and nurturing the development of children’s intellectual and emotional needs
Theoretical perspectives on emotional work
-Ansley= women absorb the anger and frustrations of men as part of their duty to provide emotional stability= cushioning effect
-Zaretsky= family acts as a safe haven for men- refreshing and replenishing them through emotional support
-Duncombe and Marsden= emotional burden on women left them feeling neglected
Has emotional labour changed?
-Beck= changes in society have led to a more negotiated family that meets the needs of partners
-Hochschild= emotional support required due to alienation in work is spreading beyond the family- family can no longer support the needs of individuals
Changing masculinities
-Emergence of ‘new man’= increased emotional labour of men
-Miller= men are taking a greater role in the emotional development of their children
-Strains of paid employment and pressures of hegemonic masculinity led males to conform to traditional gender stereotypes
Evaluations of emotional labour
-Links to ‘crisis of masculinity’ and ‘toxic masculinity’
-Beck= uncertainty of modern employment has led to more men defining themselves in the role of a father than by their occupation
-More women petitioning for divorce demonstrates an unhappiness with men’s involvement in emotional labour
Gender roles
-Conjugal roles= roles taken on by male and female partners in a relationship
-Segregated= males and females take on different and separate roles within the family
-Joint/integrated= males and females split these roles more equally often having interchanging roles, such as childcare and housework
-Link to Wilmott + Young (1973) Symmetrical family vs Oakley (1982) Conventional family
Movement towards equality
-Gershunny= suggests there’s been a movement towards equality but males still ‘lag behind’ when it comes to housework
-Tasks often split into gender domains, with men more likely to transport children and women more likely to be involved with in home-based activities
Why has housework become more equal?
-Increased female employment
-Technological advances- Silver and Schor= examined advances in labour-saving devices compared with previous generations- e.g, vacuum cleaners
Has domestic labour become more equal?
-Knudsen and Waerness= found most work was completed by women in the household
-Food Standards Agency (2007)= 77% of women take responsibility for food shopping in the home
Evaluations of changing gender roles
-Clear that domestic labour is still unequal- however gap is closing, especially for women with higher status jobs than partners
-Social Attitudes Survey (2013)= some tasks more likely to be done equally such as cooking and shopping but rarely by the man alone
-DIY= still in male domain, whilst laundry and cleaning still in female domain
Domestic violence
-Sexual violence
-Physical violence
-Psychological violence
-Financial violence
Explanation of domestic violence
-Hostility in relationships can lead to domestic violence due to the increased strain on everyday lives
-Coercive partners can control and manipulate people for many years without facing any form of sanction for their behaviours
Dobash and Dobash
-Men look to assert their patriarchal control over women’s behaviours- through physical force, financial control or psychological means
Psychological explanations
-Gillingan= domestic violence stems from feelings of inadequacy brought about a man’s inability to provide for his family
-Threats to mantel of provider= particularly through women’s employment
Feminist approaches to domestic violence
-Men need to exert power over women that offer a challenge to male expectations
-Marxist-feminists= women absorb the anger of workers
Domestic violence and policies
-Removal or marital rape exclusion clause 1991
-Ease of divorce from 1969 onwards
-Proposed Domestic Abuse Bill 2019
Financial decision-making- decision making
-Hardill et al= dual earner households, men are still most likely to influence financial decision-making
-Pahl= growth of separate finances for men and women compared with earlier research that suggested male-dominated pooling was most common
Child-rearing- decision making
-Treas and Tao found 75% of couples made joint decisions on bringing up children
-Women more likely to reduce employment to fit in with demands of childcare
-Gatrell= women’s financial power reduced after having children
