Couples

Question 1

What does domestic division of labour mean?

Answer 1

The roles couples play in regards of housework, childcare and paid work.

Question 2

What did Parsons say on the domestic division of labour?

Answer 2

In the traditional nuclear family, the roles of husbands and wives are segregated and distinct and this is based on biological differences.

Question 3

According to Parsons, what are the two roles for husbands and wives?

Answer 3

The instrumental role and the expressive role

Question 4

What is the instrumental role?

Answer 4

The breadwinner role in the family; they are more dominant and authoritative and makes the decisions. Parsons believes this is the husband’s role in the family.

Question 5

What is the expressive role?

Answer 5

The caring, emotional and nurturing role in the family; they are responsible for the well-being of their family members and primary socialisation. Parsons sees this as the female’s role.

Question 6

What are criticisms of Parsons’ view of the domestic division of labour? [3]

Answer 6

• Young and Willmott (1962): argue that men now help more with domestic tasks and more wives are entering the workplace.
• Feminists reject the idea that women are not suited for the work.
• This only benefits men as they end up being the ones with financial power in the relationship.

Question 7

Who identified the two types of conjugal roles within a marriage?

Answer 7

Bott (1957)

Question 8

What were the two types of conjugal roles Bott (1957) identified?

Answer 8

Segregated and Joint conjugal roles

Question 9

What are conjugal roles?

Answer 9

The domestic roles of married or cohabiting couples.

Question 10

What are the characteristics of segregated conjugal roles?

Answer 10

• There is a clear and often unequal divide of domestic chores.
• The couples spend little leisure time together

Question 11

What are the characteristics of joint conjugal roles?

Answer 11

• There is no rigid division of household chores based on gender.
• The couple share their leisure time and have similar interests

Question 12

Outline Young and Willmott study that took place in the 1950s and the outcome.

Answer 12

• Identified the pattern of segregated conjugal roles.
• Did a study of working-class extended families in east London in the 1950s.
• Found that men were the breadwinners, didn’t help with the housework and spent their leisure time with co-workers at pubs and men’s clubs.
• Women were full-time housewives; the limited leisure time they had was spent with female kin.

Question 13

In their study in 1973, what did Young and Willmott discover about the family?

Answer 13

It’s becoming more symmetrical

Question 14

What view do Young and Willmott take?

Answer 14

March of progress

Question 15

What is the symmetrical family?hat are some examples that act as evidence for the symmetrical family?

Answer 15

Where the roles of husbands and wives are not identical, but are more similar.

Question 16

What are some examples that act as evidence for the symmetrical family?

Answer 16

• Women now go out to work.
• Men help with the housework and childcare.
• Couples spend their leisure time together.

Question 17

Who did Young and Willmott say the symmetrical family is more common in?

Answer 17

Young couples who are geographically and socially isolated and more affluent.

Question 18

What are reasons for the rise in the symmetrical family?

Answer 18

Changes in women’s position in society.

Geographical mobility.

New technology and labour-saving devices.

Higher standards of living.

Question 19

What did Oakley (1974) say in response to Young and Willmott?

Answer 19

She criticises Young and Willmott’s idea that the family is becoming symmetrical.

She says that Young and Willmott’s claims are exaggerated.

The help that fathers did offer in the symmetrical families was minimal.

She found that only 15% of husbands had a high level of participation in housework and only 25% when it came to child care.

Men often did the fun parts of child-rearing and this meant that mothers lost the rewards of childcare and were left with more time for housework.

Question 20

What did Wade and Hetherington (1993) talk about?

Answer 20

The sex-typing of domestic tasks.

Question 21

What is sex-typing?

Answer 21

The stereotypical categorization of domestic chores according to conventional perceptions of what each gender is capable of.

Question 22

What are statistics that act as evidence of sex-typing?

Answer 22

Women were 30 times more likely to be the last person to have done the washing.

Men were 4 times more likely to be the last person to wash the car.

Question 23

What is some evidence that supports the march of progress view? [4]

Answer 23

Gershuny (1994): women working full time is leading to more equal division of labour -

Sullivan (2000): found that women are doing less housework and men are doing more.

The British Social Attitudes Survey (2018): found that fewer people think that it is the man’s job to be the breadwinner and the woman’s to stay at home.

went from 43% in 1984 -> 8%

Question 24

What is the feminist view on whether couples are becoming more equal?

Answer 24

Little change has happened despite women taking on employed work.

There is little evidence of ‘the new man’ and more women are taking on the dual burden.

The British Social Attitudes Survey (2012): suggests that the domestic division of labour is still unequal.

• men did on average 8 hours of housework a week whilst women did 13 hours couples still divide household tasks based on gender

Question 25

What did Hochschild (2013) talk about?

Answer 25

Emotion work

Question 26

What is emotion work?

Answer 26

Where women are responsible for managing the emotions and feelings of family members.

Question 27

Who talks about emotion work?

Answer 27

Hochschild (2013)

Question 28

Who talked about the triple shift?

Answer 28

Duncombe and Marsden (1995)

Question 29

What did Duncombe and Marsden (1995) talk about?

Answer 29

The triple shift

Question 30

What is the triple shift?

Answer 30

When women have to undertake housework, paid work and emotion work.

Question 31

What did Southerton (2011) talk about?

Answer 31

Said that the responsibility of organising quality time as a family falls onto the mother and this is an even more difficult task for working women.

Question 32

Who identified the two explanations for the division of labour?

Answer 32

Crompton and Lyonette (2008)

Question 33

What did Crompton and Lyonette (2008) talk about?

Answer 33

The two explanations for the domestic division of labour:

the cultural/ideological explanation.

the material/economic explanation.

Question 34

What are the two explanations for the division of labour?

Answer 34

The cultural/ideological and the material/economic

Question 35

What evidence is there for the cultural explanation? [4]

Answer 35

Gershuny(1994): couples who’s parents had equal relationships are more likely to share housework equally.

Man Yee Kan (2001): younger men do more domestic work.

Future Foundation (2000): most men claim to do more housework than there father, and most women do less than their mother.

Dunne (1999): lesbian couples had more symmetrical relationships as they weren’t pressured to conform to the stereotypical gender scripts.

Question 36

What evidence is there for the material explanation? [3]

Answer 36

Kan: for every £10,000 a year a woman earns, she does two hours less of housework per week.

Sarah et al. (1995): middle-class women were more capable of buying labour-saving devices and other products and services that saved time on domestic chores.

Ramos (2003): in couples where the woman is the breadwinner and the man is unemployed, he does as much domestic labour as she does.

Question 37

What is the cultural explanation for the domestic division of labour?

Answer 37

Patriarchal norms and values are what shape the gender roles we have.

Question 38

What is the material explanation for the domestic division of labour?

Answer 38

Men are more likely to earn more than their wives, so it’s more rational for women to take on the expressive role.

Question 39

What evidence is there to suggest that the division of childcare is still unequal? [3]

Answer 39

Ferri and Smith (1996): in fewer than 4% of families father took care of their children.

Dex and Ward (2007): only took responsibility for the fun parts of childcare; e.g. only 1% of fathers took care of their sick child.

Braun, Vincent and Ball (2011): found that only in 3/70 families was the husband the primary care givers. Most were background fathers who held a provider ideology. This was further enforced by the media promoting ideas of intensive mothering which taught women how to be good mothers.

Question 40

What is domestic abuse?

Answer 40

Any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive or threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are or have been intimate partners or family members.

Question 41

What fraction of violent crimes does domestic abuse account for?

Answer 41

Between a sixth and a quarter

Question 42

What evidence is there to show that women tend to be victims of domestic violence carried out by men?

Answer 42

Coleman et al. (2007): women were more likely to experience intimate violence in all four types of abuse: partner abuse, family abuse, sexual assault and stalking.

Coleman and Osborne (2010): two women a week are killed by a partner or former partner.

Question 43

What did Dobash and Dobash (1979: 2007) research on domestic violence show?

Answer 43

They did research in Scotland based on police records and interviews with women.

They found that: wives had been slapped, pushed, beaten, raped and killed by their husbands.

Violence was triggered when husbands felt their authority was being challenged.

Argue that marriage legitimates the violence against women and makes women dependent on them.

Question 44

What did the CSEW (2020) show about the domestic violence men and women experience?

Answer 44

Estimated that 7.3% of women have experienced domestic abuse compared to 3.6%.

Question 45

What did Barret and Mcintosh’s (1991) study on money management show?

Answer 45

Men gain far more from women’s domestic work than they give back in financial support

The financial support they do give is unpredictable and comes with strings attached.

Men usually make the important decisions on what to spend money on

Question 46

What did Kempson’s (1994) research on resources show?

Answer 46

Family members do not share their resources equally and among low-income families, women’s needs are often denied. E.g. getting less food or skipping meals

Question 47

Who identified the two types of control over family income?

Answer 47

Pahl and Vogler (1993)

Question 48

What did Pahl and Volger’s (1993) study on money management show?

Answer 48

There are two types of control over family income: the allowance system and pooling.

Pooling was becoming more popular.

Question 49

What are the two types of control over family income?

Answer 49

Allowance and pooling

Question 50

What is the allowance system?

Answer 50

Where men give their wives an allowance in order to budget and meet the family’s needs.

Question 51

According the Pahl and Vogler, which form of money management is becoming more common?

Answer 51

Pooling

Question 52

What is one evaluation behind the fact that pooling is becoming more common?

Answer 52

Pahl and Vogler (2007): even when pooling is used, men tend to make the major financial decisions.

Question 53

What did Edgell’s (1980) study on decision making show?

Answer 53

Very important decisions (e.g. moving house) were primarily taken by the husband.

Important decisions regarding the child care and their children’s education was carried out primarily by the wife.

Less important decisions (e.g. home decor) were also taken out by the wife.

Question 54

Who said that the responsibility of organising quality time as a family falls onto the mother and this is an even more difficult task for working women?

Answer 54

Southerton

Question 55

What did Smart’s (2007) study on homosexual relationships show?

Answer 55

Gay and lesbian couples attached no importance to who controlled the money in their relationship and there was greater freedom to structure their relationship as they wanted as they didn’t have the same gendered baggage behind the meanings of money and control.

Question 55

What evidence is there to show that women’s careers take a backseat to their husbands?

Answer 55

Hardill (1997): studied 30 dual-career couples and found that most decisions were taken either by the man alone or jointly and that the man’s career to priority.

Finch (1983): women’s lives tend to be structured around their husbands’ careers.

Question 56

What does the personal life perspective say when looking at money management?

Answer 56

You have to focus on the meanings couples give to who controls the money. E.g. some couples may not see who controls the money as a sign of power.

Question 57

Who said that by cohabiting, couples are making the conscious decision to create a more equal relationship?

Answer 57

Benjin (1985)

Question 58

What did Coleman and Osborne (2010) discover about domestic abuse?

Answer 58

Two women a week are killed by a partner or former partner.

Question 59

What did Yearnshire (1997) find out about women’s reluctance to report domestic abuse?

Answer 59

On average, women suffer up to 35 assaults before making a report.

Question 60

What reason did Cheal (1991) give for the unreported cases of domestic abuse? [3]

Answer 60

The police are not willing to be involved in the family due to certain reasons:

the family is part of the private sphere.

the family is a good institution so people ignore the dark side.

as we have free will, they just expect the woman to leave her partner in order to resolve everything

Question 61

What are the two explanations of domestic violence?

Answer 61

The radical feminist explanation and the materialist explanation

Question 62

What is the radical feminist explanation of domestic abuse?

Answer 62

Widespread domestic violence is an inevitable feature of patriarchal society and serves to preserve the power that all men have over all women.

Question 62

What is a criticism of the radical feminist explanation of domestic abuse? [3]

Answer 62

Elliot (1996) rejects the idea that all men benefit from domestic violence against women (e.g. not all men are violent and most are opposed to domestic violence).

Radical feminists fail to explain female violence and child abuse.

Ignore why some women are more at risk of domestic violence e.g. young women, economically deprived women, disabled women etc

Question 63

What is the material explanation of domestic abuse?

Answer 63

Stress created by economic factors leads to people taking their anger out on their partner.

Question 64

What are some evaluations of the materialist explanation of domestic violence?

Answer 64

Doesn’t explain why women are more likely to be victims.

Marxist feminists see inequality as a cause of domestic violence.

E.g. Ansley (1972): describes women as the “takers of shit” from their worker husbands