couples Flashcards
Conjugal roles (gender roles)
refers to the marriage roles played by the wife or husband, or those cohabiting
Introduction to marital roles
In the contemporary UK, traditional marital roles are breaking down and changing toward more egalitarian (equal) relationships. Since the 1970s, there has been a change in terms of husbands and wife’s roles and responsibilities: from the husband as the breadwinner and the wife in charge of household duties and child care towards a more equal division of domestic roles and responsibilities; implies that most marriages are becoming equal. In other words, there has been a shift from segregated conjugal roes to joint conjugal roles Feminists disagree and are more cautious about drawing a conclusion - they point to inequalities in domestic labour, power and control that persist in modern family relationships.
Theoretical views
From a theoretical point of view, functionalists argue that a move away from the traditional family model is damaging to society, whereas feminists welcome moves towards greater equality FUNCTIONALIST - Parsons identified two marital roles performed by the husband and wife. The husband plays the INSTRUMENTAL role of the breadwinner whilst the women plays the EXPRESSIVE role providing care and emotional support for her husband and children; believes the domestic division of labour between the husband and wife is natural, as it’s based on biological difference - also says this domestic arrangement is best for the family and societyFEMINISTS - Oakley rejects the claim that the division of labour is ‘natural’ and found in all societies and argues that the traditional family set up benefits men more than women. She sees the unfair division of labour as having its origins in industrialisation. Industrialisation locked women in the mother/wife role due to a series of Factor Acts restricting child employment, which forced women to supervise and care for children; shows that the housewife role is socially constructed
The symmetrical family
Young and Willmott carried out a research study of families in London. They found that by the 1970s, there has been a shift from segregated conjugal roles towards what they termed ‘the symmetrical family’. This meant the roles of husband and wife were similar - they equally shared housework duties and looking after the children, and both had pains jobs and spent their leisure time together. An egalitarian relationship was therefore more evident, especially in MC families
Research against conjugal role equality - OAKLEY
METHODOLOGICAL FLAWS - One of the questions asked whether the husband carried out household chores. They found that 72% of husbands ‘helped around the house’ during the week; does not amount to equality as the husband could have performed the chores once or twice a week; shows the questionnaire was poorly constructed as it didn’t take into account the daily amount of domestic chores the husband would doOVER EXAGGERATION OF EQUALITY - Y + W research did not fully explain what they meant by ‘equality’. Oakley suggests that answering ‘yes’ to one of the questions about doing at least one chore per week was not a sign of equality, and that therefore Y + W exaggerated their findings HOUSEWORK ; Oakley carried out interviews on a sample of 40 women between 20 and 30 years of age with one or more children under the age of 5. She found a clear division of labour - the wives still doing most housework and childcare, with little help from the husband, showing that domestic duties were still predominantly the responsibility of the woman. She also found a class difference in terms of domestic labour - there was evidence of males carrying out more domestic cores in MC than WC families.PARENTING ; Ferri and Smith use data from a survey aimed at childcare. They found that regardless of whether the woman was employed or not, it was still her responsibility to look after the children. ETHNIC FAMILIES ; Research into ethnic minority and gender roles found that women are still primarily responsible for domestic duties and childcare.
Power relationships
Husbands tend to control money and decide how it is spent in the family, regardless of whether the wife is in employment or not; men take greater share of the resources since they tend to earn more; women will often be economically dependant DECISION MAKING ; Edgell suggests that power in decision making is heavily based towards the husband, even in MC families. His studies found that the wife makes trivial decisions ( eg food shopping) whereas the husband makes really important decisions such as finance related onesFINANCES ; THE ALLOWANCE SYSTEM - in which men work and give their non working wives an allowance from which they budget to meet the family’s needsTHE POOLING SYSTEM - in which both partners are equally responsible for managing their finances (joint bank account). There has been an increase in the pooling system and would suggest a trend towards equality of access and control over finances EMOTIONAL CARE ; found that men had problems expressing intimate emotions with their partners. In addition, men were not aware that there was an ‘emotional issue’ requiring attention in order to make the relationship work. They saw women doing a triple shift CONTROL AND DOMESTIC ABUSE ; radical feminists welcome a move to a more symmetrical family; they see society as patriarchal and so believe that real equality will not occur until the family is abolished and patriarchy removed from society. Millet sees the family as male dominated, with men benefitting from women’s unpaid domestic labour and sexual services and using physical power or domestic abuse
Reasons for the change from segregated to joint conjugal roles
- The increase in women working - women having more independence and authority in the family because the female partner has her own income and is less dependant on her male partner; has more power and authority2. Women’s rights have improved in society - (eg Equal Pay Act and Sex Discrimination Act) forced men to accept women as equals3. The importance of female financial contributions in the home - has encouraged men to help more with housework in a recognition that the women cannot be expected to do two jobs at once4. Improved living standards - has encouraged men to spend more time at home, and share home centred leisure5. Less reliance on the extended family - the decline of the extended family has meant there is less pressure from the extended family on newly married or cohabiting couples to retain traditional roles; the nuclear family is geographically more mobile
Domestic division of labour
PARSONS - expressive and instrumental rolesBOTT - joint and serrated conjugal rolesYOUNG AND WILLMOTT - the symmetrical family OAKLEY - the feminist view of housework
Explaining the gender division of labour - CULTURAL / IDEOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS
The division of labour is based mainly on the patriarchal norms and values that are reinforced within society, through socialisation and gender roles that are dictated to us 1. Gershuny - couples whose parents had more equal relationships are more likely to have equal relationships themselves showing the importance of parental role models. Social values are now adapting to women doing paid work, so men doing domestic labour is becoming a social norm 2. Man Yee Kan - most men do more housework than their fathers and most women do less housework than their mothers, which shows a change in norms and vales through generations 3. The British Social Attitudes Survey - less than 10% of young people agree with traditional division of labour compared to 30% of older people which shows a long term change in norms as younger people are in favour of more equal relationships
Explaining the gender division of labour - MATERIAL / ECONOMIC EXPLANATIONS
Since women earn less than men, it’s more economically rational for men to go out to work, while the women stays at home to care for the children and maintain housework1. Man Yee Kan - for every £10k a year more a women earns, she spends 2 hours less on housework per week (highlights class difference)2. Amber and Ginn - better paid women are more able to buy commercial products and services rather than having to spend time on domestic tasks3. Ramos - in households where the women is the breadwinner and the man is unemployed, they spend equal amounts of time on domestic tasks
Cultural VS Material explanations
Gershuny and Laurie’s findings provide support for the economic or material explanation of gender inequality described by Crompton and Lyorette. However, feminists argue that inequalities in decision making are not simply the result of inequalities in earnings. They argue that in patriarchal society, the cultural definition of men as decision makers is deeply ingrained in both men and women and instilled through gender role socialisation. Until this definition is challenged, decision making is likely to remain unequal. This view reflects the cultural explaination of gender inequality described by C + L
The meaning of money
As Pahl notes, just pooling money doesn’t necessarily mean there is equality. We also need to know who control’s the pooled money and whether each partner contributes equally - each partner keeping their money separately always mean inequality - evidence suggests that cohabiting couples are more likely than married couples to share domestic tasks equally. These ideas point to the fact that we need to understand the meaning of money for couples
A ‘personal life’ perspective on money
Focuses on the meanings couples give to who controls the money. From this perspective, the meanings that money may have in relationships cannot be taken for granted. For example, there is evidence that same sex couples often give different meaning to the control of money in the relationship. Weeks found that the typical pattern was pooling some money for household spending, together with separate accounts for personal spending. This money management system reflects a value of ‘co independence’. Supporters of the personal life perspective argue that it’s essential always to start from the personal meanings of the actors involved in the situation
Domestic Abuse
Domestic Abuse Act 2021 - Behaviour of a person (A) towards another person (B) is ‘domestic abuse’ if - A and B are each ages 16 or over and are personally connected to each other, and the behaviour is abusive Behaviour is ‘abusive’ if it consists of any of the following 1. Physical or sexual abuse 2. Violent or threatening behaviour 3. Controlling or coercive behaviour 4. Economic abuse (means any behaviour that has a substantial adverse effect on B’s ability to acquire, use or maintain money or other property or obtain goods or services)5. Psychological emotional or other abuse ; and it doesn’t matter whether the behaviour consists of a single incident or a course of conduct
Official statistics underestimate the true extent…
Police and prosecutors may be reluctant at to record, investigate or prosecute those cases that are reported to them. According to Cheal this reluctance is due to the fact that police and state agencies are not prepared to become involved in the family. They make 3 assumptions about family life 1. The family is a private sphere so access to it by state agencies should be limited2. The family is a good thing so agencies tend to neglect the darker side of family life 3. Individuals are free agents so it is assumed that if a woman is experiencing abuse, she is free to leave. However male violence is often coupled with male economic power and therefore women are often financially dependant on their husbands Conviction rates are very low so therefore the statistic we have are just the tip of the icebergVictims may be unwilling to report it to the police. Yearnshire found that an average women suffers 35 assaults before making a report. Dar argues that victims are unwilling to report DA as they feel it is not a police matter and is too trivial
