Gender Roles, Domestic Roles And Power Relationships Flashcards
functionalist views on gender roles within the family
Parsons follows the functionalist view on the family arguing that the traditional nuclear family best meets the needs of society. In this argument the roles of husband and wife are segregated – separate and distinct from one another. According to Parsons’ functionalist model of the family, the husband has an instrumental role which means providing for the family financially and the wife has an expressive role which means meeting the family’s emotional needs, including the primary socialisation of the children.
Parsons argues that men and women are ‘naturally’ suited to these roles and that the domestic division of labour is based on biological differences. He claims that this division of labour benefits individuals and the wider society. The New Right would also hold this view arguing that traditional nuclear families benefit society and its members.
functionalist views on gender roles in the family, Willmott and young
Emergence of the New Man: The greater equality within the family has also led to a change in men. As women have taken on more of the traditional male roles and with men doing more “women’s work” (e.g. housework, childcare, shopping) – it has been suggested that this has led to the development of the “New man” – a man that is sensitive, in touch with his own and families emotional needs and committed to doing his fair share of the housework and child care.
It is nuclear instead of classically extended
It is home-centred or ‘privatised’ – leisure time is shared at home together instead of separately, and the family socialise less with people outside of the immediate nuclear family.
It is based on joint conjugal roles: couples share domestic tasks such as housework and childcare. (Willmott and Young claimed that 72% of husbands now ‘helped in the house’)
oakleys view on gender roles within the family
Oakley carried out a study of housework to prove that Willmott and Young were wrong. Oakley argues that 72% of men claiming to help with housework (as Willmott and Young suggested) is not evidence of symmetry or equality in marriage. Oakley argues that men and women remain unequal within the family and women still do most of the housework and childcare. Oakley claimed her study showed that wives have acquired a dual burden of paid earnings and unpaid housework. The family remains patriarchal as men are benefiting from both women’s earnings and unpaid domestic labour.
In her study, Oakley interviewed 40 women, half of which were middle class and half of which were working class. All of her sample were aged between 20-30 years old, lived in London and had one child or more under the age of five. Her findings showed that 15% of husbands had a high level of participation in housework and 25% of husbands had a high level of participation in childcare.
dunscombe and marsdens view on gender roles in the family
conjugal roles are segregated and women do extra roles beyond paid work and housework
Researched the impact of the woman’s emotion work. This is described as work which focuses on the management of one’s own and other people’s feelings. Emotion work is usually seen as a labour of love. Duncombe and Marsden argue that women interviewed as part of their research felt emotionally deserted, with their husbands leaving them to carry out all the emotional work in the family. This left many women feeling as if they have to perform this emotion work as well as the dual burden, creating a triple shift. E.g taking care of sick children
gerschunys view on gender roles in the family
Conjugal roles are not yet joint, but will become so in the future
Gershuny’s research found that wives who moved from part-time work into full-time did less domestic work and their partners began to do a bit more. He claimed that this was evidence of SOME progress of a more equal division of labour in the home. However, this is a slow process. He concludes that conjugal roles will become more equal over time but that men will adapt to changes more slowly than women – a process he called lagged adaptation (the time delay between women working full time and men contributing more to housework).
silver and schor on gender roles in the family
The commercialisation of the housewife role
Suggested that the increase in domestic appliances has taken away some of the drudgery and time-consuming aspects of housework and led to a commercialisation of housework. This means that housework is now easier and less skilled, so it can enable men to do more and women to do less. If women are in paid work it will enable them to buy more appliances to make housework even easier. There is some evidence to support this change in attitudes towards housework and childcare amongst younger men. For example, the Future Foundations study of 1000 adults found that 60% of men claimed to do MORE housework than their father, while 75% of women claimed to do LESS housework than their MOTHER. However, despite the increased ease of doing housework – women still tend to do a majority of tasks
dunne on gender roles in the family
Gender scripts are the expectations or norms that set out the different gender roles men and women in heterosexual couples are expected to play. In her study of 37 cohabiting lesbian couples with dependent children, Dunne found evidence of symmetry because household tasks are not linked to particular gender scripts. This allows lesbian couples to create a more equal relationship with couples having, on average, a 40:60 split in housework. This supports the radical feminist view that relationships between men and women are inevitably patriarchal and that women can only achieve equality in a same sex relationship.
2000 - Lesbian & Heterosexual mothers create news forms of mothering.
Dunne studied the relationship between motherhood and work. Dunne studied 97 mothers and 23 fathers via unstructured interviews. Dunne found the lack of gender scripts allowed lesbian couples to explore news ways of parenting which were linked to being economically independent. Lesbian couples can negotiate the demands of work and parenting in a positive way, rather than seeing motherhood as a problem (as in heterosexual couples). However, Dunne also found that middle class couples with higher educational and economic capital could make this happen more easily.
postmodren view on gender roles in the family
Postmodernist society has created more flexibility and choice in the domestic division of labour in the home. Couples can negotiate and pick and mix roles. The number of ‘house husbands’ has significantly increased in recent years but figures also show a sudden fall in the number of men in Britain who are economically inactive and say that they solely care for their family or their homes. Almost a third (30 per cent) of men do between seven and 12 hours of housework, while 45 per cent do at least 13 hours. Just three per cent of married women, meanwhile, spend less than three hours a week on tasks around the home. The survey found that only 13 per cent of married women said their husbands did more housework than them. Smart & Neale (1999) argue that marriage has become more focused on being in a relationship in which parenting is shared.
globalisation and the impact on the domestic division of labour
The increasing levels of globalisation & immigration has also had an impact on the way in which the family divides the domestic labour.
Caribbean families are more likely to be lone parent with a female lead – this results in these women taking on a greater responsibility for the families domestic labour.
South Asian families are more likely to adopt traditional gender roles in which husbands have authority over wives, women’s roles as a housewife and mother is often expected and followed.
The growth of globalisation has also led to the growing trend of purchasing family personal care, such as home helps & nannies from poorer countries across the world, for those who can afford it.
edgell on decision making and control of finances affecting the power relationship
Edgell found decision making in the home was divided. Traditionally men made the very important decisions – involving money e.g. moving house (as typically men earn more money). Important decisions – children’s education – was a joint decision but men still had the final say. Less important decisions – clothes, food – made by women. One important factor in decision-making is economic power, as men traditionally earn more money, they had more power. However, as women have gained more financial power they have been able to have a greater input. Despite the advancement of women’s position in society, recent studies have also highlighted that is some cases when women earn more than their husband/ partner – women will let their husband make most of the decisions so their masculinity is not threatened
pahl and vogler on control of family income
Traditionally couples with a division in conjugal roles would have operated an allowance system in which the husband would provide his wife with a set amount of money to buy necessities called ‘housekeeping’. However, as roles have changed and women have gained more power, couples are more likely to opt for a pooling system – both partners have access to income and joint responsibility. E.G. joint bank account, this is on the increase and more common when both partners work full-time.
However, because pooling is taking place, it doesn’t necessarily mean that there is equality. Research from 2011 found that although 59% of married couples consult each other on financial issues, only 44% of women have sole responsibility for financial decisions
weeks on the growth of co-independance
Found examples of ‘Co-independence’ –there was a growing individualisation in younger couples whereby each partner manages their own finances for personal spending but share a joint pool for household spending. Smart (2007) some gay & lesbian couples attached no importance on who controlled the money and were perfectly happy to leave this to their partner as they did not see this as a sign of equality or inequality in the relationship.
dobash and dobash on violance against wives
Argue male violence ensures women’s subordinate position and unequal power. They argued that women challenging men’s authority triggered many incidents of violence. They also argued that this inequality is tolerated and reinforced by the political and cultural institutions in society. Marriage legitimates violence against women (makes it seem acceptable) through imbalanced power within relationships. Privatisation of the nuclear family & emotional stress has meant that as the family becomes more geographically mobile and spread out, it is cut off from the extended family. As there is a lack of support from family and friends, as well as more leisure pursuits spent at home with the family – an emotional overload (like an electrical overload) can occur which can lead to violence, divorce and emotional/ physical/ psychological damage to women and children. On average, a woman is assaulted 35 times before her first call to the police.
donovan on domestic violence in same sex couples
Using questionnaires, focus groups and interviews. Donovan found that domestic violence is a significant problem in same sex relationships. As with studies with heterosexual couples, younger couples are more likely to report incidents of domestic violence, compared to older couples. Materialist explanations suggest domestic violence in both heterosexual and homosexual couples are the result of material factors in the home. Often a lack of financial resources and stress caused by worrying about money, jobs and housing can be a trigger for DV – as indicated by higher levels of violence in W/C families
