Couples

Question 1

The domestic division of labour

Answer 1

• the domestic division of labour refers to the roles that men and women play in relation to housework, childcare and paid work. Sociologists are interested in whether men and women share domestic tasks equally

Question 2

Parsons: the instrumental and expressive role

Answer 2

• in the traditional nuclear family, the roles of husbands and wives are segregated- separate and distinct from one another. In parsons functionalist model of the family, there is a clear division of labour between the spouses:
• the husband has an instrumental role
• the wife has an expression role
• parsons argues that this division of labour is bases on biological differences, with women ‘naturally’ suited to the nurturing role and mean to that of provider. He claims that this division of labour is beneficial to both men and women, to their children and wider society. Some conservative thinkers and politicians, known as the new right also hold this view

Question 3

The instrumental role

Answer 3

• geared towards achieving success at work so that he can provide for the family financially. He is the breadwinner

Question 4

The expressive role

Answer 4

• geared towards primary socialisation of the children and meeting the family’s emotional needs. She is the homemaker, a full time housewife rather than a wage earner

Question 5

Critics of parsons view

Answer 5

• however, other sociologists have criticised Parsons:
• young and willmott - argye that men are now taking a greater share of domestic tasks and more wives are becoming wage earners
• feminist sociologists reject parsons view that the division of labour is natural. In addition, they argue that it only benefits men

Question 6

Joint and segregated conjugal roles

Answer 6

• bott distinguishes between two types of conjugal roles, that is, roles within marriage:
• segregated conjugal roles - where the couple have separate roles: a male breadwinner and a female homemaker, as in parsons instrumental and expressive roles. Their leisure activities also tend to be separate.
• joint conjugal roles - where the couple share tasks such as housework and childcare and spend their leisure time together

Question 7

Young and willmott - joint and segregated conjugal roles

Answer 7

• young and willmott identified a pattern of segregated conjugal roles in their study of traditional w/c extended families in east London, in the 1950s. Men were the breadwinners. They played little part in home life and spent their leisure time with work mates in pubs and working mens clubs. Women were full time housewives and with sole responsiblity for housework and childcare, helped by their female relatives. The limited leisure women had was also spent with female kin.

Question 8

The symmetrical family

Answer 8

• young and willmott take a ‘march of progress’ view of the history of the family. They see family life as gradually improving for all its members, becoming more equal and democratic. They argue that there has been a long term trend away from segregated conjugal roles and towards joint conjugal roles and the ‘symmetrical family’
• by the symmetrical family they mean one in which the roles of husbands and wives, although not identical, are now much more similar:
• women now go out to work, although this may be part time not full time
• men now help with housework and childcare
• couples now spend their leisure time together instead of separately with workmates or female relatives

Question 9

Young and willmott was study of families in London

Answer 9

• In their study of families in London, young and willmott found that the symmetrical family was more common among younger couples, those who are geographically and socially isolated, and the more affluent. Young and willmott see this rise of the symmetrical nuclear family as the result of major social changes that have taken place during the part century:
• changes in women’s positions - including married women going to work
• geographically mobility - more couples living away from the communities they grew up
• new technology - and labour saving devices
• high standard of living
• many of these factors are interlinked. E.g, married women bringing a second wage into the home raises the families standard of living - means they can afford more labour saving devices.

Question 10

A feminist view of housework

Answer 10

• feminist sociologist reject this ‘march of progress’ view. They argue that little has changed: men and women remain unequal within the family and women still do most of the homework. They see this inequality stemming from the fact that the family and society are male dominated or patriarchal. Women occupy a subordinate and dependant role within the family and in wider society
• the feminist Oakley criticises young and willmott view that the family is now symmetrical. She argues that their claims are exaggerated. Although young and willmott found that most husbands they interviewed ‘helped’ their wives at least once a week, this could include simply taking the children for a walk or making breakfast on one occasion. For Oakley, this is hardly convincing evidence of symmetry.

Question 11

Oaklys research of housewives

Answer 11

• in her own research on housewives she found some evidence of husbands helping in the home but no evidence of a trend towards symmetry. Only 15% of husbands had a high level of participation in housework, and only 25% had a high level of participation in child care
• husbands were more likely to share children than in housework, but its more pleasurable aspects. Most couples defined the father’s rise as one of ‘taking an interest’. A good father was one which would play with the children in the evenings and ‘taken them off her hands’ on Sunday morning. However, this could mean that mothers lost the rewards of childcare, such as playing with the children, and were simply left with no more time for housework

Question 12

Boulton study on housework

Answer 12

• later research supports oaklys findings. Boulton Found that fewer than 20% of husbands had a major role in childcare. She argues that young and willmott exaggerate men’s contribution by looking at the tasks involved with childcare rather than the responsibilities. A father might help with specific tasks, bit it was almost always the mother who was responsible for the children’s security and well being

Question 13

The impact of paid work

Answer 13

• most of the women in oakleys study in the 1970s were full time housewives, but today many more wives go to work, either full time or part time. This trend towards both partners working raises two questions:
• is it leading to a more equal division of domestic tasks, with a ‘new man’ taking responsibility and doing an equal share of the housework and childcare? This is a march of progress view
• or does it simply mean that women now have to carry a ‘dual burden’ of paid work as well as domestic work? This is a feminist view

Question 14

The march of progress view

Answer 14

• like young and willmotts symmetrical family described earlier, some recent sociologists take an optimistic view. They argue that women going out to work is leading to a more equal division of labour at home. In this march of progress view, men are becoming more involved in housework and childcare just as women are becoming more involved in paid work outside the home
• gershunny argues that women working full time is leading to a more equal division of labour in the home. Using time studies, he found that these women did less domestic labour than other women.
• sullivians analysis of nationally representative data collected in 1957, 1987 and 1997 found a trend towards women doing a smaller share of the domestic work and men doing more. Her analysis also showed an increase in the number of couple with an equal division of labour and that men were participating more in traditional ‘womens’ tasks
• these trends reflect changes in attitudes to the traditional division of labour. E.g, the British social attitudes survey found a fall in the number of people who think it is the mans job to earn money and the women’s job to look after home and family. In 1984, 45% of men and 41% of women agreed with this view, but 2012 only 13% of men and 12% of women agreed.

Question 15

The feminist view

Answer 15

• in the view of feminist sociologists, women going into paid work has not led to a greater division of domestic labour. There is still little sign of the ‘new man’ who does an equal share of housework and childcare, while women now carry a dual burden, as the following evidence from the British social attitudes survey shows
• how much do they do? - the survey shows that in 2012 men on average did eight hours of housework a week, whereas women did 13 hours. Similarly, men spent 10 hours on care for family members, whereas women spent 23 hours. Overall, therefore, women did twice as much as men. 60% of women felt this division was unjust because they were doing more than their fair share
• who does what? - the survey also found that couples continue to divide household tasks along traditional gender lines. E.g, women were much more likely to do the laundry, care for sick family members, food shopping, do the cleaning and prepare meals, while men were more likely to do small repairs around the home. These patterns were much the same as they has ben in 1994
• one thing that such surveys do not measure is the qualitative differences in the tasks men and women perform. E.g, Allan argues that women’s tasks, such as washing and cleaning, are less intrinsically satisfying

Question 16

Taking responsibility for children

Answer 16

• another problem with such surveys is that they often focus only on easily quantifiable aspects such as who performs which tasks or how much time they spend doing them.
• while useful, this tells us nothing about who takes responsibility for ensuring that the tasks are done. As we saw, Boulton points out that although fathers may help by performing specific childcare tasks, it is usually the mother who takes responsibility for the child’s security and well being

Question 17

Ferri and smith - responsibility of children

Answer 17

• found that fathers took responsibility for childcare in fewer than 4% of families

Question 18

Dex and ward - responsibility of children

Answer 18

• found that although fathers had quite high levels of involvement with their three year olds, when it came to caring for a sick child, only 1% of fathers took the main responsibility

Question 19

Braun, Vincent and ball - the responsibility of children

Answer 19

• found that in 1 in 3 families out of 70 that they studied was the father the main carer. Most were ‘background fathers’ - helping with childcare was more about their relationship with their partner than their responsibility towards their children. Most fathers held a ‘provider ideology’ that their roles was as breadwinners, while the mothers saw themselves as the primary carers. This was underpinned by ideas about ‘intensive mothering’ in the media telling women how to be good mothers

Question 20

Emotion work and the triple shift

Answer 20

• another aspect of taking responsibility for other family members is what hochschild calls ‘emotion work’. Feminist have noted that women are often required to perform emotion work, where they are responsible for managing the emotions and feelings of family members, such as handling jealousies and squabbles between siblings, ensuring everyone is kept happy and so on, while at the same time exercising control over their own emotions.
• duncombe and marsden argue that women have to perform a ‘triple shift’ of housework, paid work and emotion work

Question 21

Taking responsibility for ‘quality time’

Answer 21

• another responsibility is that of coordinating, scheduling and managing the families ‘quality time’ together - a responsibility that usually falls to mothers, according to southerton.
• this has become more difficult in todays late modern society with recent social changes such as the emergence of the 24/7 society and flexible working patterns. These changes had led to peoples time being mire fragmented and ‘de routinised’.
• being ‘pushed for time’ in this wast does not show up in the quantitative measures that time studies such as gershuny use
• southerton also notes that, although some studies now show that men and women have more or less equal amounts of leisure time, they have different experiences of it. E.g, men are more likely to experience consolidated ‘blocks’ of uninterrupted leisure time, whereas, women are also more likely to multi task than men. This indicated that women are carrying a dual burden in which they face an increased volume of activities to be managed

Question 22

Summary of are couples becoming more equal

Answer 22

• the evidence we have considered suggested there may have been some movement towards an equal division of labour, but perhaps not very much. There is conflicting evidence on how much time men and women spend on domestic tasks - some findings such as gershunys suggesting a move towards greater equality, whereas, other evidences indicates continuing inequality. When it comes to responsibility for housework and especially for childcare, however, equality appears to be way off.

Question 23

Explaining the gender division of labour

Answer 23

• Compton and Lyonette identity two different expiations for the unequal division of labour:
  1. The cultural or ideological explanation of inequality - in this view, the division of labour is determined by patriarchal norms and values that shape the gender roles in our culture. Women perform more domestic labour simply because that is what society expects them to do and has socialised them to do
  2. The material or economic explanations of inequality - in this view, the fact that women generally earn less than men means it is economically rational for women to do more of the housework and childcare while men spend more of their time earning money

Question 24

Evidence for the cultural explanation

Answer 24

• from this perspective, equality will be achieved only when norms about gender roles change. This would involve changes in men and women’s attitudes, values and expectations, role models and socialisation. There is some evidence for this explanation:
• gershunny - found that couples whose parents had a more equal relationship are more likely to share housework equally themselves. This suggests parental role models are important. He argues that social values are gradually adapting to the fact that women are now working full time, establishing a new norm that men should do more domestic work.
• man yee kan - found that younger men do more domestic work. Similarly, according to the future foundation, most men claimed to do more housework than their father and most women claimed to do less than their mothers. This suggests a shift in behaviour is occurring
• the British social attitudes survey - found that less than 10% of under 35s agreed with a traditional division of labour, as against 30% of the over 65s. This indicates a long term change in norms, values and attitudes, reflecting changes in the gender role socialisation of younger age groups in favour of more equal relationships
• dunne - found that lesbian couple had more symmetrical relationships because of three absence of traditional heterosexual ‘gender scripts’, that is norms that set out the different gender roles men and women are expected to play

Question 25

Evidence of the material explanation

Answer 25

• if women join the labour force and earn as much as their partners, we should expect to see men and women doing more equal amounts of domestic work. There is some explanation:
• kan - found that for every £10,000 a year more a women earns, she does two hours less housework per week
• arber and ginn - found that better paid, m/c women were more able to but in commercially produced products and services, such as labour saving devices, ready meals, domestic help and childcare, rather than having to spend time carrying out labour intensive domestic tasks themsleves
• ramos - found that where the women is the full time breadwinner and the man is unemployed, he does as much domestic tasks as she does
  -Sullivan - shows. That working full time rather than part time makes the biggest difference in terms of how much domestic work each partner does

Question 26

Conclusion of the gender division of labour

Answer 26

• there is some evidences that a women being in paid work leads to more equality in the division of labour, especially if she is in full time work
• many feminists argue that, in reality, the extent of those is limited: women still continue to shoulder a dual or triple burden. And even is men are doing more in the home, domestic tasks themselves remain gendered. Furthermore, it is women who are expected to tale responsibility of housework and childcare
• feminist argue that the root of the problem is patriarchy. Patriarchal norms and values shape societies expectations about the domestic roles that men and women ought to perform. Patriarchy also ensures that women earn less at work and so have less bargaining power in the home. Until patriarchy is successfully challenged in the home and in the workplace, therefore, the domestic division of labour is likely to remain unequal

Question 27

Resources and decision making in households

Answer 27

• there is also inequality in who gets what - in how the family’s resources are shared out between men and women. This is linked to who controls the family’s income and who has the power to make decisions about how it is spent
• barret and mclntosh notes that:
• men gain far more from women’s domestic work than they give back in financial support
• the financial support that husbands give to their wives is often unpredictable and comes with ‘strings’ attached
• men usually make the decisions about spending on important items
• research shows that family members do not share resources such as money and food equally. E.g, kempson found that among low income families, women denied their own needs, seldom going out, and eat smaller portions of food or skipping meals altogether in order to male ends meet

Question 28

Money management

Answer 28

• the feminist sociologists Pahl and volger identify two main types of control over family income:
  1. The allowance system - where men give their wives an allowance out of which they have to budget to meet the families needs, with the man retaining any surplus income for himself
  2. Pooling - where both partners have access to income and joint responsibility for expenditure; e.g, joint bank account
• pooling is on the increase and is now the most common money management system

Question 29

Decision making

Answer 29

• it is often assumed that pooling indicates more equality in decision making and control over resources, and it is more common among couples where both partners work full time
• however, where the pooled income is controlled by the husband, this tends to give men more power in major financial decision. Pahl and volger found that even where there wad pooling, the men usually made the major financial decisions
• ## similarly, hardills study of 30 dual career professional couples found that the important decisions were usually taken either by the man alone or jointly and that his career normally took priority when deciding whether to move house for a new job. This supports finch’s observation that women lives tend to be structured around their husbands careers

Question 30

Edgells study on decision making

Answer 30

• edgells study of professional couples found that:
• very important ideas - such as those involving finance, a change of jobs or moving house, were either taken by the husband alone or taken jointly but with the husband having the final say
• important decisions - such as those about children’s education or where to go on holiday, were usually taken jointly, and seldom by the wife alone
• less important decisions - such as the choice of home decor, children’s clothes or food purchases, were usually made by the wife
• edgell argues that the reason men are likely to take the decisions is that they earn more. Women usually earn less than their husbands and being dependent on them economically, have less say in decision making
• however, there is some evidence of a limited move towards greater equality in financial decision making. Laurie and gershuy found that in 1995, 70% of couples said they had an equal say in descions. Significantly, though, they found that women who were high earning, well qualified professionals were more likely to have an equal say

Question 31

Cultural vs material explanations

Answer 31

• gershuny and Laurie’s findings provide support for the economic or material explanation of gender inequality described earlier by Compton and Lynnette
• however, feminist 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 explanations of gender inequality described by Compton and Lyonette

Question 32

The meaning of money

Answer 32

• as Phal notes, just pooling money doesn’t necessarily mean there is equality. We also need to know who controls the pooled money and where each partner contributes equally. E.g, if a man earns twice as much as his wife, but both put the same into the joint account, does this count as equality?
• nor does each partner keeping their money separately always mean inequality. E.g, volger et al found that cohabiting couples were less likely to pool their money - perhaps from a desire to maintain their independence. Yet evidences suggests that cohabiting couples are more likely than married couples to share domestic tasks equally

Question 33

A ‘personal life’ perspective on money

Answer 33

• the personal life perspective 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. E.g, while we might assume that one partner controlling the money is a sign of inequality in the relationship, for some couples it may not have this meaning
• e.g, there is evidences that same sex couples often give a different meaning to the control of money in the relationship. Smart found that some gay men and lesbians attached no importance to who controlled the money and were perfectly happy to leave this to their partners. They did not see the control of money as meaning either equality or inequality in the relationship
• similarly, weeks et al found that the typical pattern was pooling some money for household spending, together with separate accounts for personal spending. This money management system thus reflects a value of ‘co independence’ - where there is sharing, but where each partner retains control over some money and maintains a sense of independence. This is like the pattern among cohabiting couples found by volger et al
• smart found that there is greater freedom for same sex couples to do what suites them as a couple. She suggests that this may be because they do not enter relationships with the same ‘historical’, gendered, heterosexual baggage of cultural meanings around money’ that see money as a source of power.
• hence supporters of the personal life perspective argue that it is essential always to start from the personal meanings of the actors involved in the situation. This echos weeks and smarts point about the division of labour in same sex couples

Question 34

Domestic violence

Answer 34

• the home office defines domestic violence and abuse as:
• ‘any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, covercive or threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are or have been intimate patterns or family members regardless of gender or sexuality’
• this can include psychological, physical, sexual, financial and emotional violence or abuse
• a common view of domestic violence is that it is the behaviour of a few disturbed or ‘sick’ individuals and that it caused are psychological rather than social. However, sociologists have challenged this view:
• domestic violence is far too widespread
• domestic violence does not occur randomly
• this pattern is confirmed by dobash and dobash research in Scotland, based on police and court records and interviews with women and women refugees. They cite examples of wives being slapped, pushed about, beaten, raped or killed by their husbands

Question 35

Domestic violence is far too widespread

Answer 35

• to be simply the work of a few disturbed individuals. According to the women’s aid federation, domestic violence accounts for between a sixth and a quarter of all recorded violent crime

Question 36

Domestic violence does not occur randomly

Answer 36

• but follows particular social patterned and these patterns have social causes. The most striking of these patterns is that it is mainly violence by men against women
• e.g, Coleman et al found that women were more likely than men to have experienced ‘intimate violence’ across all four types of abuse - partner abuse, family abuse, sexual assault and stalking
• according to Coleman and Osborne, two women a week - or one third of all female homicide victims - are killed by a partner or a former partner

Question 37

What did dobash and dobash research on domestic violence find

Answer 37

• dobash and dobash found that violence incidents could be set off by what a husband sae as a challenge to his authority, such as his wife asking why he was late home for a meal. They argue that marriage legitimates violence against women by conferring power and authority on husbands and dependency on wives

Question 38

Crime survey for England and Wales - domestic abuse

Answer 38

• while most victims are women, however, the crime survey for England and Wales found a relatively narrow gender gap: 7.3% of women compared with 5% of men reported having experienced domestic violence in the previous year. However, other studies report a wider gap
• but just knowing how many victims there are tells us nothing about the frequency, severity or effects of the abuse they suffer - and here is a very significant gender gap

Question 39

Walby and Allen - domestic abuse

Answer 39

• found that women were much more likely to be victims of multiple incidents of abuse and of sexual violence

Question 40

Ansara and hindin

Answer 40

• found that women suffered more severe violence and control, with more serious psychological effects. They also found that women were much more likely than men to be fearful of their partners

Question 41

Dar - domestic violence

Answer 41

• points out that it can also be difficult to count separate domestic violence incidents, because abuse may be continuous, or may occur so often that the victim cannot reliably count the instances

Question 42

Official statistics

Answer 42

• official statistics on domestic violence understate the true extent of the problem of two main reasons
  1. The victims bay me unwilling to report it to the police. Yearnshire found that on average a women suffers 35 assaults before making a report. Domestic violence is the violent crime least likely to be reported
• dar argued that victims of DV are less likely than victims of other forms of violence to report the offence because they believed that it is not a matter for the police or that it is too trivial, our fear of reprisals
  2. The police and prosecutors may be reluctant 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 other state agencies are nor prepared to become involved in the family. They make three assumptions about family life:
• that the family is a private sphere, so access to it by state agencies should be limited
• that the family is a god thing and so agencies tend to neglect the ‘darker side’ of family life
• that individuals are free agents, so it is assumed that if a women os experiencing abused she is free to leave. However, that is not true. Male violence is often coupes with male economic power: abused women are often financially dependent on their husbands and unable to leave.
• lack of action by police and prosecutors means that cases successfully prosecuted are merely the tip of a much larger iceberg of abuse. E.g, during 2006-11, conviction rates stood at a mere 6.5% of incidents reported to the police

Question 43

Explanations of domestic violence

Answer 43

• we saw earlier that crompton and lyonette identify two types of explanation of gender inequality in the division of labour - one that emphasises cultural factors such as ideas and values, and one that empathises material factors such as gender inequalities in earnings.
• similarly, we can identify two types of explanations of domestic violence violence:
• the radical feminist explanation - this emphasises the role of patriarchal ideas, cultural values and institutions
  -the materialist explanation - this emphasises economic factors such as lack of resources

Question 44

The radical feminist example

Answer 44

• radical feminists interpret findings such as those of dobash and dobash as evidence of patriarchy. E.g, millett and Firestone argue that all societies have been founded on patriarchy. They see the key division in society as that between men and women. Men are the enemy: the oppressors and exploiters of women
• radical feminists see the family and marriage as the key institutions in patriarchal society and the main sources of women’s oppression. Within the family, men dominate women through domestic violence or the threat of it
• for radical feminists, widespread domestic violence is an inevitable feature of patriarchal society and serves to preserve the power that all men have over women
• in their view, this helps to explain why most domestic violence is committed by men. Radical feminists give a sociobiological, rather than a psychological, explanation by linking patters of domestic violence to dominat social norms about marriage and
• furthermore, in their view, male domination of state institutions helps to explain the reluctance of the police and courts to deal effectively with cases of domestic violence.

Question 45

Evaluation of radical feminist explanation

Answer 45

• however, Elliot rejects the radical feminist claim that all men benefit from violence against women. Not all men are aggressive and most are opposed to domestic violence. Radical feminists ignore this
• radical feminist also fail to explain female violence, including child abuse by women and violence against make partners within lesbian relationships. E.g, the crime survey for England and wales found that 18% of men have experienced domestic violence since the age of 16
• radical feminists use the concept of patriarchy to explain why most victims of domestic violence are women, but they wrongly assume that all women are equally at risk of patriarchal violence. They explain why it is women and not men who are victims, but they fail to explain which women are most likely to be victims
• e.g, evidence from the office for national statistics suggests that women from some social groups face a greater risk of dv. Such as:
• young women
• those in lower social classes living in deprived areas
• those on low incomes or in financial difficulties
• those living in shared and rented accommodation
• those with high levels of alcohol consumption or using illegal drugs

Question 46

The materialist explanation

Answer 46

• the materialist explanation of domestic violence focuses on economic and material factors such as inequalities in income and housing to explain why some groups are more at risk than others. E.g, Wilkinson and Pickett see domestic violence as the result of stress on family members caused by social inequalities
• inequality means that some families have fewer resources than others. Those on low incomes or living in overcrowded accommodation are likely to experience higher levels of stress. Those reduces their chances of maintaining stable, caring relationships and increases the risk of conflict and violence. E.g:
• worries about money, jobs and housing may spill over into domestic conflict as tempers become frayed
• lack of money and time restricts peoples social circle and reducers social support and those under stress
• the findings of Wilkinson and Pickett show that not all people are equally in danger of suffering domestic violence: those with less power, status, wealth or income are often at a greater risk.

Question 47

Evaluation of materialist explanation

Answer 47

-Wilkinson and pickets approach is useful in showing how social inequality produces stress and triggers conflict and violence in families. As those in lower social classes face greater hardship and thus stress, this helps to explain the class difference in the statistics on domestic violence
- however, unlike the radical feminist approach, Wilkinson and Pickett do not explain why women rather than men are the main victims
- Marxist feminist also see inequality causing domestic violence. E.g, ansley describes wives as ‘takers of shit’. She argues that domestic violence is the product of capitalism: male workers are exploited at work and they take out their frustration on their wives
- this helps to explain why domestic violence is male violence against females. However, it fails to explain why not all male workers commit acts of violence against their partner and it doesn’t account for cases of female domestic violence