Couples Flashcards
What are parsons roles?
Instrumental= Male, provide economic support for the family, breadwinner
Expressive= Provide emotional support, socialisation of children, homemaker, housewife
What is Young and Willmott’s view?
Family is improving for all its members, becoming more equal and democratic. More joint conjugal roles, symmetrical family
What are some features of the symmetrical family
- Equal division of labour within the home, e.g housework (domestic duties) and childcare
- Equal division of labour outside of the home, dual-worker partnerships
- Equal division of power when making decisions for major events or about money
- Couples spending more leisure time together
What does Oakley argue about the symmetrical family?
- Young and Willmott’s claims are over- exaggerated only 15% of men participated in housework and 25% childcare
What are the 2 types of roles identified by Bott?
Segregated conjugal roles: separate, male breadwinner, female homemaker. Spend leisure time apart
Joint conjugal roles: Share housework & childcare, spend leisure time together
What has caused the rise of the symmetrical family?
- Changes in women’s position
- Geographical mobility
- New technology
- Higher living standards
What is the march of progress view?
- Gershuny, women working full time is leading to a more equal division of labour in the home.
Studies found these women did less domestic work
Feminist view on women going into paid work:
- no greater equality
- no sign of the ‘new man’
- women carry dual burden
2012 survey, men 8 hours housework weekly, women 13 hours
What is Boultons view on childcare?
- fathers may help with childcare but mothers take responsibility for security and wellbeing
Dex & Ward, 78% played with children, 1% took responsibility when caring for sick child
What is the dual burden and triple shift?
Dual burden: paid work and unpaid domestic work
Triple shift: Housework, paid work, emotion work
How is leisure time between men and women different?
Men= uninterrupted consolidated blocks
Women= punctuated by childcare, dual burden
What are Crompton and Lyonettes explanations for the gender division of labour?
Material explanation= women earn less, economically rational to do more housework and childcare
Cultural explanation= society expects women to perform more domestic labour, determined by patriarchal norms
Evidence for cultural explanation:
Gershuny, couples whose parents had a more equal relationship, share housework equally themselves (role models)
- social values adapting to women working full time
Evidence for material explanation
Kan, for every £10,000 a year more a woman earns, 2 hours less of housework per week
What do Barrett and McIntosh say about decision making?
- men gain more from domestic work, than they give in finances
- financial support is unpredictable, ‘strings’ attached
- men make decisions about spending on important items
What are the two types of control over income (Pahl & Vogler)
allowance system: men give wives a budget to meet family’s needs, any surplus for himself
pooling: both partners, joint income and responsibility for expenditure
What did Edgell find on decision making?
- very important decisions: job, moving house, husband alone or joint, husband final say
important: education, holidays, joint or wife
less important: children’s clothes, food, by the wife
(men take decisions due to earning more and wives being dependent)
What did Smart find on who controlled the money in a relationship?
- some gay men and lesbians attached no importance to who controlled the money, happy to leave this to each other
What do sociologists argue about domestic violence being only a few ‘sick’ individuals?
- too widespread, crime survey for England and Wales, 2013, 2 million reported being victims in the previous year
- doesn’t occur randomly, follows patterns, men against women. Coleman & Osborne, 2 women a week are killed by a former/partner
Who says that marriage legitimises violence?
Dobash & Dobash
What did Walby and Allen find on domestic violence?
Women more likely to be victims of multiple incidents of abuse/ sexual violence
Why may official statistics understate domestic violence?
Yearnshire, victims unwilling to report to the police, women suffer 35 assaults before reporting
Cheal, police reluctant to investigate, family is a private sphere, family is a good thing (neglect darker side) if women want to leave they can (not true, finances)
Radical feminist explanation of domestic violence
- marriage and family key institutions maintaining oppression
- its inevitable, men dominate women through violence
- male domination in institutions explains why the police are reluctant to investigate
evaluation:
- fail to explain female violence, e.g child abuse. crime survey, 18% men experienced dv since 16
- Elliot, not all men are aggressive, most oppose dv
Materialist explanation of domestic violence
- WIlkinson & Pickett, dv result of stress on family members from social inequality, fewer resources
increase of violence due to:
- worries about money, jobs and housing
- lack of money and time causing stress
- those with less power/ status/ wealth at greater risk
evaluation:
- doesn’t explain why women are the main victims if caused by social inequality
- marxists feminists agree. Ansley, wives are takers of shit. dv is the product of capitalism, men take out work frustration on wives