Couples

Question 1

The domestic division of labour

Answer 1

Roles men and women play in relation to housework, paid work and children,

Question 2

Parsons : Expressive role

Answer 2

The woman usually plays the expressive role, geared towards socialisng the children and maintaining a family home and environment

Question 3

Parsons : instrumental role

Answer 3

This role is played by the man, he is geared towards being the breadwinner and he places this above all else. Chasing success

Question 4

Parsons : instrumental role

Answer 4

This role is played by the man, he is geared towards being the breadwinner and he places this above all else. Chasing success

Question 5

Criticism of Parsons roles

Answer 5

• Young and Willmott argue more men are taking roles in domestic work as are women taking on paid work
• Feminists argue that the divide is not natural, and it only benefits the men

Question 6

Bott : Segregated conjugal roles

Answer 6

Where the man and women have seperate roles like Parsons suggests and they also have seperate leisure activites

Question 7

Bott : Joint conjugal roles

Answer 7

Where the couple shares tasks such as housework and paid work, also spending leisure time together.

Question 8

The symmetrical family

Answer 8

Young and Willmott take a march of progress view arguing that roles are becoming much more similar between the husband and wife.
- women now work
- men help with childcare
- couples spend leisure time together

Question 9

Feminist view of housework

Answer 9

They argue nothing has changed and men and women are still seperate in their conjugal roles.
Oakley argues Y&W claims are exaggerated and mens ‘help’ around the home may be seen as making breakfast once a week.
only 15% of hubands had a high level of pp in the home

Question 10

March of progress view

Answer 10

Men are becoming more involved
Gershurny argues that the increase of women going into paid work leads to a more equal divide of labour in the home, he found these women do less housework in comparison to others.
Sullivan found a trend of men doing more work in the home compared to women doing a smaller share

Question 11

Feminist view

Answer 11

Still little sign of the new man who equally shares housework
- British Social Attitude Survey shows that men did around 8 hours of housework a week in comparison to women who did around 13
- Men and women are still likely to spit chores based on gender roles. Women are more likely to do the laundry and men are more likely to fix lights etc

Question 12

Taking responsibility for children

Answer 12

Although men may perform specific childcare tasks it is still usually the mother who takes resp for childs health and wellbeing
- Ferri and Smith found 4% of fathers took resp for child
- Dex and Ward found although fathers played w children when it came to nurturing a sick child only 1% of dads did

Question 13

Emotion work and triple shift

Answer 13

Marsden argues women have to perform a triple shift of domestic work, emotion work and paid work
- Emotion work being them having to mediate family issues, and ensuring all are content

Question 14

Taking responsibility for quality time

Answer 14

Southerton argues the responsibility of organising family quality time also lies to mothers.
Also men usually experience blocks of uniterrupted leisure time compared to women whos leisure time is taken up by childcare.

Question 15

Cultural explanation of inequality

Answer 15

Divison is based on patriarchal roles and values.
Women perform more domestic work simply because that is what society has socialised them to do

Question 16

Material explanation for inequality

Answer 16

Men earn more then women so it is seen as rational for women to complete domestic tasks while men spend more time earning money to provide

Question 17

Evidence for cultural reason behind inquality

Answer 17

• Gershurny found that those who had parents who had equally divided were more likely to do so themselves as they were socialised into this
• Dunne found lesbian couples had more equal division as they had no gender roles to comply to

Question 18

Evidence for material explanation of inequality

Answer 18

• Kan found for every £10,000 more a woman earnt a year, she did 2 hours less housework a week
• Sullivan found working full-time rather then part-time makes the biggest difference in how much domestic work each partner does

Question 19

Money management

Answer 19

Pahl and Vogler
-Allowance system where women have to budget to meet family needs and the man keeps his surplus income for himself
- Pooling where both partners have access to an account and have joint resp for expenditure

Question 20

Decision making

Answer 20

Where pooled income is controlled by the husband it gives them more control enabling them to make the major financial decisions
Pahl and Voler found even where there was pooling men made the major financial decisons
Edgell found
- very important decisions such as moving home were made by husband
- important such as holidays were made by wife
- not inporant such as shopping were made by wife

Question 21

Why do men make decisions

Answer 21

Feminists argue that men make the dscisons as we are socialised into the view that men are the decison makers

Question 22

Common view of domestic violence

Answer 22

That it is the work of a few disturbed individuals in society

Question 23

Critisisms of DV being a few disturbed ind

Answer 23

• Too widespread, Womens Aid say DV accounts for between 1/6 and 1/4 of all crime.
• Doesnt occur randomly and followes pattersn, eg its usually men

Question 24

What may trigger DV

Answer 24

Dobash and Dobash Men seeing challenges to their authority eg wife asking why they are home late

Question 25

Gender gap of DV

Answer 25

7.5% of women
5% of men
but other studies suggest a wider gap
Wallby and allen suggest women are more likely to be victims of abuse

Question 26

Offical statistics of DV

Answer 26

Official stats may underestimate
- Victims may be unwilling to report to police. Yearnshire found a woman usually takes 35 instances before reporting it to police
- Police may be reluctant to record and prosecute add according to Cheal this is due ot them bienng reluctant to get involved in the family as they see it as a private sphere, they see the family as a good institute so they ignore the darker sides and also they assume the woman has free will to leave.

Question 27

Explanations of DV
Radical feminist explanation

Answer 27

They see marriage and the family as the key sources of oppression of women.
They see DV as an inevitable factor of patriarchal society and argue it upholds the power men have over women. This helps to explain why most perpetrators are men.
Male domination of the state and police allows us to understand their reluctance in intervening

Question 28

Evaluation of radical femininst explanations

Answer 28

Elliot rejects this view and argues all men are not violent and aggressive and most oppose DV.
They fail to exxplain female violence, and violence in lesbian relationships
They argue women are more likely to be at risk but they fail to identify which women. Office for National Stats ststes some women are more likely to be at risk
- young
- high levels of alc/drug consumption
- low income
This also applies to men

Question 29

Material explanation for DV

Answer 29

Focuses on economic and material factors such as inquality in income and housing.
Inequality ,eand some families have fewer resources then others. Low income or in substandard housing are at greater risk of DV due to higher levels of stress due to worries about money and lack of time.

Question 30

Evaluation for materialist explanation of DV

Answer 30

Those in lower classes face higher levels of stress triggering conflict and violence
However wilkinson and pickett dont explain why women are more at risk

Question 31

Marxist feminists view on DV

Answer 31

Result of inequality, men are frustrated due to being exploited at work and take this out on their wives.
Fails to explain why all male workers dont resort to this.