couples Flashcards
parsons gender roles
there is a clear division between men and womens gender roles
men play the instumetnal role of going to work and getting the money
women play the expressive role ofbeing the pimary socialisers
as women are ‘natrually socialised into the rile’
criticisms of parsons expressive and conjugal roles
young and willmott argue that men are now taking a greater share of domestic tasks and women are become wage earners
SYMMETRICAL FAMILY
BSA survey 2013 only 12% men believed that men and women should have seperate roles
bott conjugal roles
two types of roles within a marriage
- segregated conjugal roles couples have distinctly separate roles
- joint roles couples share house and childcare
young and Wilmott symmetrical family
march of progress of the domestic dividion of labourwhere men and women’s roles are becoming more similar becuase
- womens position in the workplace is changing
- more men taking up paternaty leave ect.
evidence of symmetrical family
british social attitudes survey
2013 only 12% of men believed in having seperate roles as parsons descibed
feminist view on housework
anne oakley found that 15% of husbands have an active roles in housework and 25% in childcare
- husbands only want to help in childrens pleasurable aspects such as taking children to park to allow mother to get on with housework
dual burden and tripple shift
oakley: increase mothers and owme working has lead to rise in dual burden women now have to do instumental and expressive role
- women have to perform tripple shift of housework
cultural explaination of the gender division of labour
crompton- divsion is determined by patriarchal norms and values that shape gender roles in our culture
this will only change when women and mens norms and roles are changed
there has been a generational shift in younger men doing more housework than their dads did but still not equal
material explanation of division of labour
crompton- women genrally work less than men so its economically traditional for women to do more childcare andhousework while men make money
this will even out when women join labour force
kan- for every 10,000 a year more a woman earns, she does two hours less of housework a week
persectives on decisions making
hardill- 30 dual career proffesional couples found that the most important deicions made were usually taken by the man
edgell found that men take control of important financial decisions
evidence against hardills finding on decision making in couples
gershuny found that in 1995 70% cuples said they had an equal power when decisions making
phal on money in couples
two ways of money distubutionincuples were pooling and allowances.
couples who had a more equal relationship were found to pool their money
plp on money
smart argues that we should focus on the meaning the couples place upon money.
one couple may see a man having control as inequality whilse another couple may not agree
ex gay and lesibans attach no importance to who controled money due to not having traditional gender roles
what issues are there with the idea that the perpertators are deeply sick and twisted people with psycological problems
-domestic violence is too widespread for this to be the case
women’s aid federation domestic violence accounts for 1/6th and 1/4 of all crimes
- coleman: domestic violence doesn’t occur randomly
colemon et al found that 2 women a week are killed by a partner or former partner
what do numbers of vicitms not show us
- the gender difference
women are much more likely to be sufferers of sexual violence over a long period of time - doesn’t tell us how frequently it was happening
what issues are there with using official statistics to measure domestic violence
- victims may not want to talk to the police
yearnshire- on average women suffered 35 assaults before reporting it to police. domestic violence is the least likely violence to be reported
- police may be reluctant to record and investigate cases
cheal- this is due to the fact that police adn toehr stat agencies dont want to be invlved in the private shpere of an indivduals life
what issues is there with police being reluctant to investigate cases of domestic violence?
less cases are successfully prosecuted
between 2006-2011 conviction rates stood at a mere 6.5% of incidents reported to the police
what is the radical feminist explanation of domestic violence
feminists like firestone and dobash and dobash;
radical feminsits see the family and marriage as a key institution preserving the patriarchy and within the family men dominate through domestic violence or the threat of it
in their view thsi explains why more men are perpertrators due to the dominant norms of marriage and mens role within marriage
fruther more the reluctance of police investigating is the result of them being male dominated insitutions
evaluation of radical feminist view
wrongly assume that all women are equally at risk from DV
ONS statistics show that some social groups are more at risk
- young women
- lower classes in poor areas
- those with high levels of alcohol consumption
- disabled women
materialistic view on DV
- focuses on the economic facotrs that explain why some groups are more at risk than others
- pickett and wilkinson argues that doemstic violence is a result of stress on family memebrs cause by inequality
for exmaple worries about money, jobs and housing as well as lack of money reducing social circle able to help releive stress
evaluation of materialist explanation
dont explain why women rather than men are more likely to suffer
