Couples Flashcards
Bott.
Sees 2 types of families: 1. Segregated. Have separate roles.
2. Joint. Sharing roles. Spend leisure time together.
Parsons.
Husband-instrumental/bread winning role.
Wife-expressive/primary socialisation.
Parsons argues this is ‘natural’ and beneficial for the family and for society as a whole.
Young and Willmott.
Take a MoP view. Say that the family has improved, and is becoming more symmetrical and less segregated.
E.g, men now help with housework, women now go out to work.
Oakley. (Arguing against Y+W).
Oakley says that Y+W have exaggerated their findings, and that she found no evidence of a move towards symmetry.
Oakley also argues that men ‘cherry pick’ the tasks they want to do.
Boulton.
Found that fewer than 20% of men play a major role in childcare.
Future Foundation.
- 60% of men though they did more housework than their fathers.
- 75% of women thought they did less housework than their mothers.
Oakley - Role of Housewife.
Oakley says that the role of the housewife began during industrialisation when paid work moved away from the home, and husbands were the sole breadwinners and wives were the housewives.
Therefore it is socially constructed, not ‘natural’, and Oakley argues that it is only beneficial to men, not women.
Gershuny.
Found that when the woman didn’t work, she did 83% of housework.
When woman worked P/T, did 82%.
When woman worked F/T, did 73%.
Says greater equality is happening, society adapting.
Sullivan.
Found that there is a trend towards equality, and that men are now doing more ‘traditional’ woman’s jobs.
Silver and Schor.
Say that economic developments have lessened housework for women, and that housework has become commercialised. For example, microwaves, ready meals, etc.)
Schor.
Schor even goes so far as to claim that the role of the housewife has died.
(The Dual Burden)
Ferri and Smith.
Say that increased workload for women does not mean that men now do more housework.
Found that men took responsibility for childcare in fewer than 4% of cases.
(The Dual Burden)
Morris.
Morris found no change, even when men were unemployed and the woman was working full time.
Argues this may be due to a ‘crisis of masculinity’, (lost their role of breadwinner, but considers jobs that used to be traditionally woman’s tasks as not masculine, and therefore to be stayed away from).
(The Dual Burden)
Ramos.
Disagreed with Ferri and Smith and Morris. Found that when the woman worked full time and the man was unemployed, they each did 19 hours per week of housework.
(Emotion Work)
Hochschild.
Uses this concept to refer to jobs like stewardessing. She noted that women are more likely to be doing this job than men.
