couples Flashcards
segregated conjugal roles definition (Bott)
couple has different roles - one responsible for income other may care for family - couple has own friend
joint conjugal roles definition (Bott)
couple shares house and family responsibility and spend most leisure time together
what led to segregated conjugal roles (parsons)
industrialisation due to men going out to work in factories and women being banished from dangerous work to care for children who were also unfit to work
what does a family need in order to be functional
needs to provide its members with instrumental and expressive needs
why were men the only choice for the instrumental role
they brought in the money and provided basic provisions
evaluation of Parsons view on couples
-study was conducted on white american m/c families so not generalizable
-Laslett disagrees that the extended family structure was dominant before industrialisation as records show nuclear family was most common due to low life expectancy
-Anderson states that the extended family continued to be dominant after industrialisation as family members would stick together to survive poverty etc
Young and Wilmott symmetrical family definition
men and women having the same work and house jobs
arguments for the family becoming more symmetrical
liberal feminists - family has and although inequality still exists they celebrate the progress that has been made e.g equal pay
- Gershuny - March of Progress say family has become increasingly equal due to full-time female employment and even though women still dominate domestic labour men can do DIY
-Silver and Schor (housework become comercialised + increase female income)
arguments against family becoming more symmetrical
Oakley 1 criticised their methodology (saying does your husband ‘help’ implieng the man can provide assistance if needed) 2 saying they help once a week isnt equality women are in full-time employment and responsible for domestic labour (dual burden)
- Duncome and Marsden say women are responsible in ensuring each member is emotionally stable - found women were holding their relationship together
- Oakley says women still do most of housework
reasons for the increase in cohabitation
- growing economic independance of women
- secularisation
- reduced stigma of sex outside marriage
- fear of divorce
- getting married has become extremely expensive
reduced stigma of sex outside marriage causing increase in cohabitation evaluation
older generations would still be critical and see cohabitation as sinful
secularisation causing increased cohabitation evaluation
certain ethnicities werent ever affected by this e.g. asians
womens position in society causing increase in cohabitation evaluation
applies mainly to m/c as w/c may still need to marry as they arnt fully financially independant
cost of marriage causing increase in cohabitation evaluation
some would still go into debt for marriage and the cost doesnt bother them
Living Apart Togethers definition
couples who have a significant relationship but live in different households
3 reasons people may choose a LAT relationship
- responsibility and care for other people
- practical reasons - work or studying
- risk - avoids messy seperations and moving houses
changes in the position of marriage
- marriage rates are at there lowest since the 1920’s
- however theres more remarriages leading to serial monogomy
- people are marriaging later, average age of first marriage rose by 7 years between 1921 - 2012
- couples are less likely to marry in churhces - this has decreased by 30%
decline in marriage is due to
- changing attitudes - less pressure to marry
- secularisation - people feel freer not to marry
- declining stigma attached to alternatives to marry
- changes in position of women - financially stable
- fear of divorce - see an increased likelihood of it ending badly
- remarriages - rise in divorce causes rise in remarriages
- age of marrying - age of younger people marrying is rising and they postpone marriage to stay in education
2 main reason for decrease in church marriages
- secularisation and most churches refuse to marry divorces
