Couples Flashcards
Domestic division of labour
Refers to the roles that men and women play in relation to housework, childcare and paid work.
Parsons: instrumental and expressive roles.
- traditional nuclear family = roles of husband and wives are segregated.
- Parsons functionalist model of the family there is a clear division of labour between spouses.
- The husband has an instrumental role = get towards achieving success at work so that he can provide for the family financially/the breadwinner.
- The wife has an expressive role = get towards primary socialisation of children and meeting families emotional needs/the homemaker.
Parsons biological differences argument
-argues that this division of labour is based on biological differences.
– Women are naturally suited to the nurturing role and men to that of provider.
-claims division of labour is beneficial to both men and women to the children and wider society. The new right also hold this view.
Michael Young and Peter Willmat criticism of persons
– Men are now taking a greater share of domestic tasks and wives are becoming wage earners
Feminist criticism of Parsons
– Reject persons view that the division of labour is natural. They also argue that it only benefits men.
Elizabeth Bott joint and segregated conjugal roles.
– Segregated conjugal roles = the couple have separated roles: mail is breadwinner and female is homemaker like Parsons instrumental and expressive roles. Their leisure activities also tend to be separate.
-joint conjugal roles = the couples share tasks such as housework and childcare and spend their leisure time together.
Young and Willmott the symmetrical family
– They take a march of progress view of the history of the family.
– They see the family as gradually improving for all its members, becoming more equal and democratic.
– Argue that there has been a long-term trend away from segregated conjugal roles and towards joint conjugal roles and the symmetrical family.
– Symmetrical family is when the roles of husband and wife, although not identical, are now much more similar – women go out to work although sometimes part time, men now help with housework and childcare, couple spend their leisure time together.
Study done by young and Willmott of symmetrical families findings
Found that the symmetrical family was more common among younger couples, those who are geographically and socially isolated, and the more affluent. They see the rise of the symmetrical nuclear family as a result of major social changes that have taken place in the past century such as:
– Changes in women’s position, including married women going to work.
– Geographical mobility – more couples living away from the communities in which they grew up
– New technology laboursaving devices
– Highest standards of living.
Criticism of Young and Willmott -Ann Oakley
– Argues that their claims are exaggerated. Although they found that most of the husbands they interviewed helped with 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.
Ann Oakley research
-only 15% of husbands had a high level of participation in the house work and only 25% had a high level of participation in childcare.
Are couples becoming more equal? The impact of paid work
– Most of the women in Oakley study in the 1970s with full-time housewife but today many more wives go out to work either full-time or part-time.
-this could even mean that it is leading to a more equal division of domestic tasks with men taking more responsibility or that woman now have to carry a dual burden of paid work as well as domestic work.
The 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.
-Jonathan Gershuny- Woman working full time is leading to more equal division of labour, these women did less domestic work than other woman.
British social attitude survey for changes in attitudes towards the traditional division of labour findings.
-fall in the number of people who think it’s a man’s job to earn money and the woman’s job to look after home and family.
– In 1984, 45% of men and 41% of women agreed with this, by 2012 only 13% of men and 12% woman agreed.
The feminist view
– Women going into paid work has not led to greater equality in the division of domestic labour.
- Women now carry a dual burden and there is little sign of the “new man” who does an equal share of housework and childcare.
- British social attitude survey –> men = 8 hours housework a weak woman = 13 hours a week. 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, shop for groceries and prepare the meals. Men were more likely to do small repairs around the house.
Dex and Ward (2007)
- Although fathers had quite high levels of involvement with this three-year-olds, when it came to caring for a sick child, only 1% of fathers took me responsibility.
- Shows that the mother still takes main responsibility for the child security and well-being.
