COUPLES

Question 1

Domestic division of labour

Answer 1

This refers to the roles that men and women play in relation to housework,childcare and paid work.

Question 2

Instrumental role (Parsons)

Answer 2

This is the husbands role which involves being geared towards success at work so he can provide for the family financially, he is the breadwinner.

Question 3

Expressive role (Parsons)

Answer 3

The wife’s role which involves being geared towards primary socialisation of the children and meeting the family’s emotional needs. She is the homemaker, a full-time housewife rather than a wage earner.

Question 4

Segregated conjugal roles (Elizabeth Bott-1957)

Answer 4

Where the couple have separated roles: a male breadwinner and female homemaker/career, as in Parsons’ instrumental and expressive roles. Their leisure activities also tend to be separate.

Question 5

Joint conjugal roles (Elizabeth Bott-1957)

Answer 5

Where the couple shares tasks such as housework and childcare and spend their leisure time together.

Question 6

Young wilmott study

Answer 6

• They identified a pattern of segregated of segregated conjugal roles in their study of traditional working class extended families in Bethnal green, East London, in the 1950s.
• Men were the breadwinners and women were full-time housewives with the sole responsibility for housework and childcare, helped by their female relatives.

Question 7

Young and Wilmott (1973) view of the history of the family

Answer 7

They see family as gradually improving for all its members, becoming more equal and democratic. They argue that there has been a long-term trend away from segregated conjugal roles and towards joint conjugal roles and the ‘symmetrical family’

Question 8

Symmetrical family

Answer 8

A family in which the roles of husbands and wives, although not identical, are now much more similar

Question 9

Features of the Symmetrical family

Answer 9

• Women now go out to work, although this may be part-time rather than full-time.
• Men now help with housework and childcare
• Couples now spend their leisure time together instead of separately with workmates or female relatives

Question 10

The major social changes which may have resulted in the rise in symmetrical family

Answer 10

• Changes in women’s position, in terms of marriage and going to work
• Geographical mobility-more couples living away from the communities in which they grew up in.
• New technology and labour-saving devices
• Higher standards of living

Question 11

Feminist view of housework

Answer 11

Feminists argue that little has changed: men and women remain unequal within the family and women still do most of the housework. They see this as stemming from the fact that the family and society are male-dominated or patriarchal. Women occupy a subordinate and dependent role in the family and wider society

Question 12

Ann Oakley(1974) criticism of Young and Wilmotts ‘symmetrical family’

Answer 12

She argues that their claims are exaggerated, although young and Wilmott found that mos t of the husbands they interviewed ‘helped’ their wives at least once a week, this could include simply taking the children for a walk or making breakfast on one occasion.
-In her own research on housewives, Oakley found some evidence of husbands helping in the home but no evidence of a trend towards symmetry. Only 15% of husbands had a high level of participation in housework.

Question 13

The march of progress view: Are couples becoming more equal?

Answer 13

Some recent sociologists take a more optimistic view, arguing that women going out to work is leading to a more equal division of labour at home, where men are more involved in housework and childcare just as women are becoming more involved in paidwork outside the home.

Question 14

The feminist view: Are couples becoming more equal?

Answer 14

In the view of feminist sociologists, women going into paid work has not led to greater inequality in the division of domestic labour. There is still sign of the ‘new man’ who does an equal share of housework and childcare, while women now carry a dual burden.

Question 15

Statistics on conjugal roles in the UK

Answer 15

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

Question 16

Arlie Russell Hochschild (2013)- emotion work

Answer 16

Feminists have noted that women are often required to perform emotion work, where they are responsible for managing the emotions and feelings of family members, such as jealousies and squabbles between siblings, ensuring everyone is kept happy, while at the same time exercising control over their own emotions.

Question 17

Triple Shift

Answer 17

Jean Duncombe and Dennis Marsden (1995) argue that women have to perform a ‘triple shift’ of housework, paid work and emotion work.

Question 18

Taking responsibility for ‘quality time’

Answer 18

Another responsibility is that of coordinating, scheduling and managing the family’s ‘quality time’ together- a responsibility that usually falls to mothers, according to Dale Southerton (2011)

Question 19

cultural/ideological explaination for the unequal division of labour : Rosemary Crompton and Claire Lyonette (2008)

Answer 19

In this view, the division of labour is determined by patriarchal norms and values that shape the gender roles in our culture. Women perform more domestic labour simply because that is what society expects them to do.

Question 20

Material/economic explaination for unequal division of labour: Rosemary Crompton and Claire Lyonette (2008)

Answer 20

In this view, the fact that women generally earn less than men means it is economically rational for women to do more of the housework and childcare while men spend more of their time earning money.