Ann Oakley - Key Facts Flashcards
What is Oakley’s perspective?
Feminist perspective.
What was Oakley’s study on the family called?
Conventional families.
Conventional Families Defined
Ann Oakley defined the conventional family as “nuclear families composed of legally married couples, voluntarily choosing parenthood of one or more children”. This is otherwise known as the cereal packet family.
What did Oakley consider about the family?
She considered the way the conventional family worked as a form of social control: people were expected to live in these families, and this controlled them by making it harder to live alternative lives. As people got older - especially women - they would be regularly asked when they were going to get married and have children, as though alternatives to this life plan were unthinkable.
What did she note about the family?
Oakley noted that people were exploring different ways of living and different arrangements that worked for them and did not conform to convention.
She noted that people increasingly saw the conventional family as a stereotype and an archaic one. Instead some groups understood that they could organise their families differently and, indeed, that they did not have to live in a family at all, but could choose some other form of household or living arrangement.
What did Oakley discover about the division of domestic labour?
She found that women have a dual burden of paid work and housework.
