Couples Flashcards
Instrumental role
To achieve success at work
To provide financial support
Division of labour
Child care
Domestic labour - cooking and cleaning
Paid employment
Expressive role
Primary socialisation of the children
Meeting the family’s emotional needs
In the traditional nuclear role - TALCOTT PARSONS (1955)
The husband has an instrumental role
The woman has an expressive role
Talcott Parsons 1955 argument
This nuclear family division of labour is based on biological differences, with women “naturally” suited to the nurturing role.
He claims thats the division of labour is beneficial to both men and women
Functionalist view on couples
Stereotypical - nuclear family - wife’s the housewife.
Feminist view on couples
Equal roles or mum are subservient
Feminists may argue that right now there is patriarchal control
Marxist view on couples
Would argue the mans role is to provide and the woman is to do unpaid labour which allows the male to provide these resources
Filling in the needs for capitalism
New Right view on couples
They would value the traditional family.
The stereotypical family is the epitome
E.g singe parents viewed as less
The domestic division of labour
The roles that men and women perform in relation to housework, childcare and paid work
During the industrial revolution
The division of labour became more prominent
Elizabeth Bott (1957)
SEGREGATED and JOINT conjugal roles
SEGREGATED conjugal roles
Where the couple have separate roles: a male breadwinner and a female homemaker/ career (as in Parsons’ roles).
Their leisure activities also tend to be separate.
JOINT conjugal roles
Where the couple share tasks such as housework and childcare and spend their leisure time together.
Wilmott and Young
See family life as gradually improving for all its members (known as the MARCH OF PROGRESS VIEW)
Wilmott and Young’s investigational result
Symmetrical family - the roles of husbands and wives are now much more similar (women work, men HELP with housework, couples spend leisure time together)
They studied families in LONDON and found the symmetrical family was more common amongst younger couples, those who re geographically or socially isolated, and the more affluent
Wilmott and Youngs - REASONS FOR THE RISE IN THE SYMMETRICAL FAMILY
- Changes in women’s position in society
- More women working
- Geographical mobility (living away from communities you grow up in)
- new technology and labour saving devices (hoover, washing machine)
- Higher standards of living
EVALUATION of Wilmott and Young
Their research methods were criticised. Vague questions and unrepresentative sample
Wilmott and Youngs MARCH OF PROGRESS VIEW
See family life as gradually improving for all its members
The Feminist View - OAKLEY
- rejects “Marke of Progress” view
- Men and women remain unequal within the family and women do most of the housework
- The fact that men are seen as “helping” women more does not prove symmetry. It shows that the responsibility of housework is still the woman’s
- even though more women work, the housewife role is still the women’s primary role.
The feminist view OAKLEY research findings
- 15% of husbands had a higher level of participation in housework
- 25% high level in childcare (BUT ONLY IN THE MORE PLEASURABLE ASPECTS)
- Men take on the more pleasurable household tasks
WILLMOTT & YOUNG stratified sampling
They argued that changes in norms and values tend to start among the wealthier in society and then others start to behave in the same way
(The behaviour is “DIFFUSED” from one STRATA - class - to another).
Elston’s
Survey of over 400 couples, in which both partners were doctors, found that 80% of female doctors reported that they took time off work to look after their sick children, compared with on,h 2% or male doctors
Dex and Ward
Found that although 78% of fathers played with their children, only 1% took responsibility when their child was sick
Braun, Vincent and Ball
Only 3 families out of 70 studied was the main character
Boulton
Argues men help by performing specific tasks with childcare, the mother normally takes responsibility for the child’s security and well-being
Positive impacts of an increase in money
- more money may increase the standard of living
- nursery may be useful to socialise the child
- may encourage a more equal division of labour
- privatisation of domestic work - can provide more leisure time
- if mother works - becomes a role model for children/ daughters
Southerton (2011)
Argues that responsibility for coordinating, scheduling and managing the family’s “quality time” generally falls to mothers
Negative impact on increase in money
- Stressed
— Reliance on childcare - Baulby: argues the first 2 years of your life are crucial for future relationships - May cause stress on fathers if domestic labour is increased
- privatisation of domestic work - ruins family values as externals are cleaning, cooking etc.
Man-Yee Kan (2001)
Income, age and education can have a positive or negative correlation with the
amount of housework women do. For every £10,000 increase in salary, there is
a two-hour reduction in housework
Gershuny (1994)
Argues that there has been a gradual increase in equality between the sexes
due to a SHIFT IN NORMS AND VALUES around paid work. It is seen as the
norm for wives and mothers to work
Crompton (1997)
Agrees with Gershuny, though she thins the trend towards equality is linked to EARNING POWER (money) rather than changing norms and values.
Sullivan (1975)
Trend between towards equality in the home. Men are taking on more
traditionally email tastes (SIMILAR TO THE “SYMMETRICAL FAMILY” theory)
Pahl (1984)
Conducted a survey of 750 couples and discovered that unemployed men did
more around the home, but wives, when they were in work, were still expected
to be responsible for the bulk of housework.
The Time Use Survey of 20.5 carried out by LADER ET AL (2006)
Found that women in paid work spent 21 hours a week on average on
housework, compared with only 12 hours spent by men on the same. Overall,
this survey found that 92% of women do some housework per day VS only 77% of men
But man and Huxley (1997)
Suggest that the inequality in the division of labour is a major cause of divorce today
Bolton (1983)
Argues men help by performing specific tasks with childcare, the mother
normally takes responsibility for the child’s security and well-being
Ferri and Smith (1996)
Survey sample of 1,586 33-year-old fathers and mothers. Fathers took main
responsibility for childcare in fewer than 4% of families
Arber and Ginn (1995)
Middle class vwomen buyimg labour saving devices
Morris (1990)
Even when fathers are unemployed, they avoid the housework. R W Connell
calls this the “crisis off masculinity”
The triple shift - HOCHSCHILD (1983)
suggests an even bleaker picture for mother’s: paid work, followed by domestic work and supporting the family emotionally (E.G CARING FOR A SICK CHILD)
MARSDEN(1995) - Calls this a ‘triple shift’
Dunne (1999)
Thinks that inequality in the division of labour arises because of deeply ingrained ‘gender scripts’ (essentially norms and values about who does what in the home and gender roles
CROMPTON AND LYONETTE (2008) 2 MAIN GENDER ARGUMENTS FOR GENDER DIVISION OF LABOUR - cultural and ideological explanation of inequality
Patriarchal norms shape the gender roles
CROMPTON AND LYONETTE (2008) 2 MAIN GENDER ARGUMENTS FOR GENDER DIVISION OF LABOUR - cultural and ideological explanation of inequality
Patriarchal norms shape the gender roles
CROMPTON AND LYONETTE (2008) 2 MAIN GENDER ARGUMENTS FOR GENDER DIVISION OF LABOUR - the economics, explanation of inequality
Women earn less so makes sense for the man to earn and the woman to do more housework and childcare
