Couples Flashcards
Parson
-Instrumental & Expressive roles
-Biological roles, beneficial - New Right agree
Young & Willmott, feminists (Critique of parsons)
Y&W: argue men now take a greater share of domestic tasks and wives more likely wage earners
F: reject its natural- only benefits men
Bott
-Joint & segregated conjugal roles
(leisure and roles)
Young & Wilmotts (J&S roles)
-Traditional WC extended families more likely to have segregated conjugal roles
-Symmetrical family more common in younger couples(socially & geographically isolated)
Young & Wilmott
-Been a march of progress, moving away from segregated conjugal roles.
-Now a symmetrical family: women work, men help with domestic tasks, couples spend leisure together
4 social changes that have encouraged the rise in symmetrical family
-Change in women’s position
-Geographical mobility, moving away from where they were raised
-New tech, & labour-saving devices
-higher standards of living
Oakley (fem view of housework)
Criticise Y&W symmetrical family-exaggerated
-Found: 15% men had high participation in housework & 25% with childcare
Give two examples of sex-typing tasks
-wives 30x more likely to be the last to have done the washing
-Husbands 4x more likely to be last to have washed the car
Womens % share of domestic work by employment status of partner (statistics)
-husband full-time, women full-time most equally share domestic work
-Husband full-time, wife unemployed: most DW unequal
(support march of progress, as women become more financially secure)
Support for march of progress (Sullivan&BSA)
Sullivan: Found a trend towards women doing a smaller share of domestic work and men doing more
-evidence of a more equal division
BSA: fall in tradition inst & expr roles
Heterosexual couples, gendered household tasks (stats)
men: make small repairs around the house
women: care for sick family, laundry, cleaning, make meals
-Big changes since 1944 in DW but still large division: laundry 6% men, 70%women
-Feminists says shows little sign of the ‘new man’
BSA (fem view)
-Little sign of ‘the new man’.
EG survey:M: 10hrs on care per week, women 23hrs. (W do 2x more)
❌Quantitive data (BSA) fails to show the women’s tasks such as washing and cleaning are less intrinsically satisfying
what % of fathers took responsibility for childcare
Fathers took responsibility for childcare in fewer than 4% of families
Ferri & smith
Women have to perform triple shift (housework, paid work, emotion work)
Southerton (quality time)
Another responsibility is organising the families quality time (juggling)
-Men likely have ‘blocs’ of leisure time but women’s often interrupted
explanation of unequal divisions
-Cultural explanation: division on labour determined by patriarchal norms and values.Society expects it/socialisation.
-Material explanation: fact women generally earn less means it’s rational for women to do more domestic work-men earn.
Evidence of cultural explanation
-Gershuny: couples whose parents had a more equal relationship led them to do so. Suggest parental role models important. Social values gradually adapting to women working- new norms of men doing DW
-Man Kee Kan: Younger men do more, most claim they do more than their dads & women less than their mother. generational shift.
Evidence of material expl
-Kan: every £10k a year more a F earns, does 2hrs less housework/week
critique ME
-No immediate prospects for equal divisions of labour if it depends on economic equality between sexes.
Eg in 7/8 homes M earn more.
Who benefits more from resources and decision making
-M gain more from W domestic work than they give in financial support
-Financial support provided is often unpredictable, strings attached
-M usually make decisions abt spending on important items
Kempson
-in wc homes women denied there own needs, going out, meals to make ends meet.
-Even in adequate income homes, resources may be unequally shared
Pahl & Volger
-Allowance system: M give F an allowance, he keeps any surplus
-Pooling: Both have access & joint responsibility eg J bank. (common)
Even in pooling M usually made major financial decisions.
-Volger:cohabiting less likely to pool (independence) yet share DL equally
Edgell
Study of professional couples, decisions
-Very Important: eg finance, job change, move house= H alone or joint
-Important: children’s edu, holiday=usually joint
-Less important: home decor,clothes, food = W alone
(economic dependence often justifies H making important decisions)
Finch: Ws lives often structured around Hs career
Smart (PLP on money)
-some gay couples attach no importance to money or who controls it, happy to leave it to their partner. Didn’t =equality or inequality
-Greater freedom to do what suits them, no ‘historical, gendered, heterosexual baggage’ in relationships.
