Couples Flashcards
What is the domestic division of labour?
The roles that men and women play in relation to housework, childcare and paid work.
What was Parsons theory?
Instrumental and expressive roles
What is an expressive role?
primary socialisation for children and caring (women)
What is instrumental role?
Success at providing finance (men)
Evaluation of Parsons theory
- Division of labour becoming blurred
- Feminists reject the idea (not natural/socially constructed )
What was Bott’s theory?
Segregated conjugal roles and Joint conjugal roles
What is Segregated conjugal roles and Joint conjugal roles ?
Segregated conjugal roles = separate roles and separate leisure time
Joint conjugal roles = couples share tasks and complete leisure together
What was Young and WIlmott’s theory?
Symmetrical family
What is a symmetrical family?
Where the roles of the partners are more similar
What are the four causes of the ‘symmetrical family’?
- changes in women’s position
- Geographical mobility
- New technology
- Higher standard of living
What was Oakley’s idea of the double burden?
as women go to work ( providing finance) but still do the domestic chores)
What was Dunscombe’s idea of the triple shift ?
Women carry out paid/unpaid and emotional work
What are the two reasonings for why women are still doing majority of the housework?
Cultural ( social expectations)
Materialist ( women earn less → so expected to contribute more within the domestic chores
What is Gurshuny’s view
Argues that with more women in work → causes this shift to more equality in sharing of domestic work within a household
Those whose parents have an equal split are likely to imitate
What is Sullivan’s study?
looked at data from 1975/87/97 and found a trend towards greater equality and less gendering of domestic roles
Barrett and Mcintosh - 3 points
1) men gain more fm women’s domestic work then what they give back in financial aid
2) financial support often comes with strings attached
3) men make the decisions about spending
Compton and Lyonett
1) cultural ideological explanation
2) materialist economic explanation
what does the cultural explanation of the domestic division of labour mean?
Domestic division of labour is determined by patriarchal norms and values shape the gender roles in our culture
Women perform more labour because society expects this
What does the meterialst explanation of the domestic division of labour mean?
- The fact that women generally earn less than men means it economically makes sense for women to do the domestic and housework.
So for equality → women in full time work
Gurshuny - cultural explanation
found couples whose parents had more equal relationships would share in their own partners
- Idea of role models → eventually establishes a new norm of equality of domestic work
KAN - materialist x cultural explanation
C= young men are doing more domestic work → a generational shift is occurring
M= every 10k a women earns annually she does 2x less housework
Kempson
Family members do not share resources
- in low income families women often deny their own needs - e.g they skip. Meal and go out less
Pahl and Vogler
The allowance system - men give women an allowance they have to budget from and any remainder is the mans
Pooling - couples both have access no joint responsibility for spending
Hardill
Study of 30 dual professional career couples
- found desicion making by man or jointly
- the mans job took priority
Finch
Observation that women’s lives tend to be constructed around husband’s career
BBC 2014
2/3 marriages 18-32 have a chore war
What is the personal life perspective ?
Focuses on the meaning couples give to who controls the money - don’t treat everyone the same / homogeneously
Smart
Same sex couples attatch no importance to who controls the money
- may be due to les cultural /social baggage
Weeks et al
Typical patterns of pooling for household spending but personal accounts for personal spending
What is domestic violence ?
Any incident or pattern of controlling, coercive or threatening behaviour or abuse between those 16+ who have been intimate partners.
Domestic violence stats 2020
1.6 million women are 16-74 are victims
Domestic violence stats for men + women
1 in 4 women
1 in 7 men are victims
WALBY AND ALLEN
women are much more likely to be victims of multiple incidents of abuse/sexual violence.
what is the radical feminist explanation for domestic abuse
Argue that all societies are founded by patriarchy and see men as the enemy and oppressors of women.
3 factors of radical feminist explanation
- see family and marriage as a source of oppression
- think wide spread DA is inevitable
- Institutions like courts are patriarchal and explain why women do not want to come forward.
FIRESTONE AND MILLETT
- domestic violence is as a result of patriarchy
- men are the enemy ; exploiters of women
DOBASH AND DOBASH
Domestic violence is a physical and ideological tool that men use to control women
Evaluation of radical feminist view for Domestic abuse / Strengths
Can explain why domestic violence is statistically committed against more women
Evaluation of radical feminist view for Domestic abuse / Limitations
ELLIOT - not all men are aggressors and most oppose domestic violence towards men
- fail to explain female violence
What is the materialist explanation for domestic abuse?
focuses more on the economic factors such as income and housing to explain why some groups are more at risk
WILKINSON
Sees domestic violence as a result of stress on family members caused by social inequality.
Those on low incomes experience more stress due to social hardships which may overspill into the family unit
Evaluation of the materialistic domestic abuse perspective
- shows not all people are in danger but those of less status are
- Useful in showing social hierarchy is a factor
However doesn’t explain why women are more of a victims then men
Maxist feminists views on domestic abuse
See inequality as causing domestic violence ( due to capitalism)
ANSLEY
describes wives as the ‘takers of shit’
Argues domestic abuse is a product of capitalism as male workers are exploited and take it out on their wives
Evaluation of marxist feminist views on domestic abuse
- explains why women are mostly victims
- fails to explain why not all men commit
- does not account for female violence
