couples

Question 1

instrumental and expressive roles

Answer 1

Parsons
husband has an instrumental role - achieving success at work, breadwinner
wife has an expressive role - carer and nurturer of the family, housewife

Question 2

joint and segregated conjugal roles

Answer 2

Bott
segregated - male breadwinner and female homemaker, separate leisure activities
joint - couple share tasks such as housework and childcare and spend leisure time together

Question 3

criticisms of Parsons instrumental and expressive roles

Answer 3

Young and Wilmott say men are taking a greater share of domestic tasks and wives are going to work

feminists disagree that the division of labour is natural, only benefits men

Question 4

symmetrical family

Answer 4

Young and Willmott take a ‘march of progress’ view, they argue there has been a long term trend towards joint conjugal roles and symmetrical family

women go out to work
men help with housework and childcare
couples spend leisure time together

Question 5

reasons for the rise in the symmetrical family

Answer 5

major social changes:

more women in paid work
new technology (labour saving devices)
higher standards of living

Question 6

what did Young and Willmott find in their study of families in London?

Answer 6

symmetrical family was more common among younger couples, those who are geographically and socially isolated and the more affluent

Question 7

how does Oakley criticise Young and Willmott?

Answer 7

says their claims are exaggerated, most of the husbands they interviewed ‘helped’ their wives at least twice a week, not evidence of symmetry

Question 8

what does Oakley find in her research on housewives?

Answer 8

found evidence of husbands helping in the home but no evidence of symmetry
15% of husbands had a high level of participation in housework, 25% had a high level of participation in childcare
only pleasurable aspects of childcare e.g. playing with children

Question 9

what does Boulton say?

Answer 9

Young and Willmott exaggerate mens contribution by looking at mens contribution rather than who’s responsible

a father might help with specific tasks but mother usually responsible for child’s security and well being

Question 10

what is the march of progress view?

Answer 10

Young and Willmott - women in paid work is leading to a more equal division of housework

Sullivan - analysis of data found a trend towards women doing a smaller share of domestic work and men doing more

Question 11

what do feminists think about couples becoming more equal?

Answer 11

women in paid work has not led to greater equality, there is little sign of a ‘new man’ and women now carry a dual burden

Question 12

how does the British social attitudes survey support the feminist view of couples becoming more equal?

Answer 12

2012 men did 8 hours of housework a week, women did 13, men spent 10 hours on care for family members whereas women spent 23

Question 13

evidence to support Boulton’s view of mother taking responsibility

Answer 13

Dex and Ward found only 1% of fathers took the main responsibility for caring for a sick child

Braun et al found most fathers were background fathers, they held a provider ideology: their role was breadwinner, not primary carer

Question 14

what is the triple shift?

Answer 14

Duncombe and Marsden found women were required to carry out emotion work creating a triple shift: emotion work, domestic labour and paid work

Question 15

what are two explanations for the gender division of labour?

Answer 15

Crompton and Lynette:
the cultural or ideological explanation
the material or economic explanation of inequality

Question 16

what is the cultural or ideological explanation of inequality?

Answer 16

patriarchal norms shape gender roles, women perform more domestic labour because this is what society expects and has socialised them to do

Question 17

what is the material or economic explanation of inequality?

Answer 17

women earn less than men, so it is economically rational for them to do more domestic labour while men spend more time earning money

Question 18

evidence for the cultural or ideological explanation of inequality

Answer 18

equality will be achieved only when attitudes, values and expectations change:

• Gershuny argues that couples are adapting to women work full-time establishing a new norm of men doing more domestic work
• british social attitudes found a long-term change in attitudes, 10% of under 30s agreed with a traditional division of labour

Question 19

evidence for the material or economic explanation of inequality

Answer 19

if women earn as much as their partners couples should do more equal amounts of housework:

• Arber and Ginn found better paid women could buy in products and services rather than carrying out domestic tasks themselves
• Ramos found where women is the breadwinner and man is unemployed they do equal amounts of domestic labour

Question 20

what did Dunne find in her study of lesbian couples?

Answer 20

heterosexuals were socialised into gender scripts that set out different masculine and feminine roles and gender identities

lesbians did not link household tasks to gender scripts, so they were more open to negotiation and thus more equal

Question 21

criticisms of Dunne

Answer 21

Dunne found that where one partner did more pairs work, they also did less domestic work so material factors still influenced division of labour

Question 22

what did Barrett and Macintosh find?

Answer 22

men gain more from women’s domestic work than they give back in financial support

Question 23

what did Kempson find?

Answer 23

women in low income families were denied their own needs to make ends meet e.g. skipping meals

Question 24

what are the two types of control over family incomes?

Answer 24

Pahl and Vogler
the allowance system - men give their wives an allowance and keep any surplus income
pooling - where both partners have access to income and joint responsibility for expenditure (on the increase)

Question 25

what did Edgell’s study of professional couples find?

Answer 25

very important decisions were taken by husband alone or with his final say
important decisions were taken jointly
less important decisions were made by the wife

Question 26

what is the material explanation for inequalities in decision making?

Answer 26

men are likely to earn more so women are economically dependent on them and have less say in decision making

Question 27

what is the cultural explanation for inequalities in decision making?

Answer 27

feminists argue that patriarchal society instills the idea that men are decision makers through gender role socialisation

Question 28

what is the personal life perspective of money?

Answer 28

Nyman says money has no fixed meaning and different couples define it differently, this reflects the nature of the relationship

Smart found that same sex couples often give a different meaning to the control of money, they did not see it as meaning equality or inequality
(use to evaluate cultural and material explanations)

Question 29

evidence that domestic violence is not just the behaviour of a few disturbed individuals

Answer 29

widespread - crime survey found two million people reported having been victim of domestic abuse during 2013

doesn’t occur randomly - mainly violence by men against women, one third of all female homicides were by a partner of former partner

Question 30

why do official statistic on domestic violence understate the true extend of the problem?

Answer 30

under reported

under recorded

Question 31

why are domestic violence cases under reported?

Answer 31

least likely violent crime to be reported, on average a women suffers 35 assaults before making a report

because victims fear is is too trivial or from fear of reprisals from their abuser

Question 32

why are domestic violence cases under recorded?

Answer 32

police and prosecutors reluctant to record, investigate or prosecute cases

Cheap says because they don’t want to become involved in the ‘private sphere’, and assume victim is free to leave (not true because financially dependent)

Question 33

what are two explanations of domestic violence?

Answer 33

the radical feminist explanation

the materialist explanation

Question 34

what is the radical feminist explanation for domestic violence?

Answer 34

they see domestic violence as the result of patriarchy:
- men oppress women, mainly through the family, domestic violence enables men to control women
- men dominate the state explaining why the police and courts fail to take domestic violence seriously
supported by Dobash and Dobash who found violence was triggered when husbands felt their authority was being challenged

Question 35

criticisms of the radical feminist explanation of domestic violence

Answer 35

doesn’t explain violence by women against men, children or lesbian partners
Elliot argues that not all men benefit from it

Question 36

what is the materialist explanation of domestic violence?

Answer 36

women, children and poor and lower classes at risk because of social inequality

Wilkinson and Pickett argue that these parters are a result of stress on the family caused by social inequality. families that lack resources e.g. low income, poor housing - suffer more stress increasing risk of violence

Question 37

what are criticism of the materialist explanation of domestic violence?

Answer 37

doesn’t explain why women rather than men are the main victims

Question 38

how is the materialist explanation of domestic violence supported?

Answer 38

marxist feminists also see inequality producing domestic violence.

Ansley argues that male workers exploited at work take out their frustrations on their wives who are ‘takers of shit’