couples Flashcards
What is the domestic division of labour?
The roles that couples play in relation to housework, childcare and paid work.
What are parsons’ two roles in the family?
The husband has the instrumental role geared towards achieving financial success and supporting the family (the breadwinner) while the wife has the expressive role geared towards primary socialisation and the family’s emotional needs (the homemaker)
What was Young and Willmott’s study in Bethnal Green?
Young and willmott identified a pattern of segregated conjugal roles (where the couple have separate roles) in their study of traditional w/c extended families in Bethnal green in the 1950s. Men were the breadwinners - they played little part in home life and spent leisure time with workmates at the ub while women were full time housewives.
How do young and willmott criticise Parsons’ roles?
Men are now taking on a greater share of domestic tasks while women are becoming wage earners
What family type do Young and Willmott argue has increased in dominance?
The symmetrical family - women now go to work, men help with housework, couples spend leisure time together. They found that the symmetrical family was more common among younger couples who are geographically and socially isolated and the more affluent. They argue that this is due to changes in women’s position, geographical mobility, new technology and higher standards of living.
How does Oakley criticise Young and Willmott?
Their claims are exaggerated. She found that only 15% of husbands had a high level of participation in housework while 25% had a high level of participation in childcare. This meant that mothers lost the rewarding aspects of childcare such as playing with their children as husbands would cherry pick the most pleasant roles to perform.
What is Gershuny’s view of the equality of couples?
Gershuny argues that more women participating in paid work is leading to a more equal division of labour in the home. These women did less domestic work than other women.
What is the feminist view of the equality of couples?
On average, men do 8 hours of housework a week while women do 13, men spent 10 hours caring for family members while women spend 23 hours, 60% of women found this division unjust.
What two explanations do Crompton and Lyonette put forward for the unequal division of labour?
The cultural or ideological explanation - division determined by patriarchal norms and values shaping gender norms in our culture.
The material or economic explanation - it is economically rational for men to earn money while women care for the children and do the housework.
What did Duncombe and Marsden argue about women’s role in the family?
Women have to perform a triple shift of housework, paid work and emotion work. This stemmed from Hochschild’s observation that women are expected to perform emotion work and care for all family members.
Give two bits of evidence for the cultural explanation
Gershuny found that couples whose parents had a more equal relationship are more likely to share housework equally - suggests parental role models are important. Dunne - lesbian couples had more symmetrical relationships because of the absence of traditional heterosexual gender scripts.
What did Barrett and Mclntosh find about resources and decision making in households?
Men gain back 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 decisions about spending on important items.
What did Kempson find about low income families?
Women denied their own needs, seldom going out, and eating smaller portions of food or skipping meals altogether in order to make ends meet.
What two types of control over family income did Pahl and Vogler find?
The allowance system - where men give their wives an allowance out of which they have to budget to meet the family’s needs with the man retaining any surplus income. Pooling - where both partners have access to income and joint responsibility for expenditure e.g. a joint bank account.
What did Pahl and Vogler find about pooling?
Men usually made the major financial decisions
What did Edgell find in his study of professional couples?
Very important decisions such as those involving finance, a change of job or moving house were made by the husband alone of 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. Less important decisions such as the choice of home decor, children’s clothes or food purchases were usually made by the wife.
What did smart find about how queer relationships viewed money?
Some gay men and lesbians placed no importance on who controlled the money and were perfectly happy to leave this to their partners. They did not see the control of money as a representation of a couple’s equality.
What did Dobash and Dobash find about domestic abuse in relationships?
Violent incidents could be set off by what a husband saw as a challenge to authority such as his wife asking why he was late home for a meal. Marriage legitimates violence against women by conferring power and authority on husbands and dependency on wives.
What did Cheal find about police’s reaction to domestic violence?
the police are reluctant to get involved in the family
they make three assumptions about family life:
- the family is a private sphere so access to it by state agencies should be limited
- the family is a good thing and so agencies tend to neglect the darker side of family life
- individuals are free agents - male violence is often coupled with male economic power.
What two explanations do Crompton and Lyonette put forward for domestic violence?
The radical feminists explanations - this emphasises the role of patriarchal ideas, cultural values and institutions. The materialist explanation - emphasises economic factors such as a lack of resources.
What is Millet and Firestone’s radical feminist perspective on domestic violence?
All societies have been founded on patriarchy. They see the key division in society as that between men and women. Men are the enemy - they are the oppressors and exploiters of women.
How did Elliot criticise the radical feminist view of domestic violence?
Reject the claim that all men benefit from violence against women. Not all men are aggressive and most are opposed to domestic violence.
