Conjugal roles Flashcards
Pahl and Vogler
Found that men make the major financial decisions even after pooling money, which is now becoming more common. The pooled income is controlled by the man, which gives him more power
Edgell
Found that men make the most important decisions (such as finance), important decisions (children’s education) are made jointly, and less important decisions (paint colours, food etc.) are made by the woman
Kan
Young men are doing more housework than their fathers, and young women are doing less work than their mothers.This suggests a generational shift in behaviour and gender roles. Found that for every £10,000 more a year that a woman earns, she does two hours less housework
Smart
Studied gay couples and found that they attached no connotations of power to who controlled the money. They said that there was greater freedom to do what suited them as a couple because they do not enter a relationship with the same “historical, gendered, heterosexual baggage” to money, and do not see it as a source of power like in a heterosexual marriage
Ramos
Found that where the woman is the full time breadwinner and the man is unemployed, men did the same amount of domestic work as the woman, so they do an equal amount of domestic labour
Dunne
Lesbian couples have a more symmetrical relationship because they do not feel pressure to follow any “gender scripts” of a heterosexual relationship
Crompton and Lyonette
Two explanations for the unequal gender domestic division of labour:
Cultural/ideological: means division of labour is determined by patriarchal norms and values which shape gender roles.
Material/economic: Women earn less than men meaning it is economically irrational for women to do more housework and childcare
Parsons
Believes that roles are unequal, but this is a good thing as roles are biologically given, and that means children have role models of both sexes in the family. Males perform the instrumental role, and women perform the expressive role. These roles are segregated, but they are a good thing and provide the man with a “warm bath” when he gets home from work
Oakley
Says that Young and Willmott’s view of symmetrical families are exaggerated, she found that only 15% of men participated in domestic labour and 25% in childcare, however, they only do the pleasurable aspects
Young and Willmott
Symmetrical families: Following a march of progress, roles are now symmetrical (couples perform the same roles), with men getting involved in domestic labour and childcare, and women working in paid jobs outside of the home
Richard Reeves
Revolution in the domestic division of labour: Terms like ‘career woman’ will have lost their novelty by 2043 and the pay gap will be gone by 2040. There is a more noticeable symmetry in families
Duncombe and Marsden
Women now perform a triple shift, which includes domestic labour, paid labour and emotional labour. They argue that there is still a division of labour
