Couples

Question 1

What is the domestic division of labour?

Answer 1

The division of household chores such as cleaning or childcare between a couple

Question 2

What do functionalists argue about ddol?

Answer 2

Parsons argues that there are two conjugal roles in a relationship, the instrumental role of the male breadwinner and the expressive role of the female carerw

Question 3

What else does parsons argue about ddol?

Answer 3

That gender division of labour is functional for the family structure, he sees this difference as biologically based whereby women are naturally suited to nurturing roles and men to providing so everyone benefits from the specialisation

Question 4

Who agrees and who disagrees with parsons views?

Answer 4

New right thinker Murray agrees with this but feminists reject this view that the inequality between domestic division of labour is natural and cite the fact that it doesn’t exist in other cultures where women work such as in the Caribbean they argue that this only benefits men

Question 5

What do march of progress Sociologists Argue?

Answer 5

They argue that with the passing of time more and more couples are becoming equal with both working and both contributing to household labour, Bott found that there was a long term trend showing more couples becoming joint conjugal roles where they share both domestic labour and leisure time

Question 6

Who advocates something similar to Bott?

Answer 6

Young and Willmott see a long term trend towards symmetrical families where both roles are equal in a couple, they argue this can be seen is society as most women now work, The so called ‘new man’ in society carries out childcare passionately and couples are spending more and more leisure time with each other.

Question 7

What are some of the reasons mop theorists view symmetrical families as growing?

Answer 7

The rise is because of major social changes in the 20th century such as higher living standards, labour saving devices, better housing, fundamental new legislation such as the sex discrimination act of 1969 and smaller families - Always explain why!!! they have risen

Question 8

What do feminists argue about ddol?

Answer 8

They reject the march of progress and functionalist views and they see the family as patriarchal and not symmetrical as women still do most of the housework and childcare.

Question 9

What does Oakley say about ddol?

Answer 9

She found no evidence of symmetry in domestic labour, she argues that Young and Willmott exaggerate men’s roles in ddol as although they helped this could only just be ironing their own shirt once a week

Question 10

What does Boulton add?

Answer 10

Argues that we need to look at who is responsible for the tasks and just who performs them as women are often responsible for childcare but men help out, she found that less than 1 in 5 men took responsibility for major childcare

Question 11

What is the Mop view about couples becoming more equal?

Answer 11

That couples are more equal than ever as most women are now in paid work which they argue is leading to a more equal ddol?

Question 12

Which mop Sociologist researched whether couples were becoming more equal and what did they find?

Answer 12

Sullivan who completed a longitudinal study found that over 10 years women are in fact doing less domestic work and men are more men are taking part in more domestic labour making couples more equal

Question 13

What is the feminist view about couples becoming more equal?

Answer 13

Feminists do not believe women working paid jobs has led to more equality as women now carry a dual burden of paid work and domestic work, the British Social Attitudes survey found that women do twice as much and couples still divide household chores along traditional gender lines, it shows that there has been little change since the 1990s, some feminists argue that such little change in couple equality is because of a patricarchal society that is still trying to benefit men and surprises women which they argue can be seen in the gender wage gap etc.

Question 14

What do feminists argue about responsibility for children ?

Answer 14

That fathers do take some responsibility for childcare but women still take the responsibility for child well being, Dex and Ward (2007) found that only 1% of fathers took the main responsibility for caring for a sick child and Braun et al (2011) found that most fathers were background fathers and held a ‘provider ideology’ where their primary role was to be a breadwinner and secondly a carer

Question 15

What is a triple shift?

Answer 15

A triple shift (Duncombe and Marseden, 1995) is where women not only take on a dual burden of paid work and domestic labour but also emotional work

Question 16

1) What is one reason for gender division of labour?

Answer 16

Ideological explanation, patriarchal cultural norms shape gender roles, women perform more domestic labour because this is what society expects them and has socialised them to do

Question 17

What is the evidence for this?

Answer 17

Equality will be achieved only when attitudes, values, expectations, role models and socialisation change, Gershuny (1984) argues that couples are adapting to women working full time establishing a new norm of men doing more domestic work, Kan (2001) Found that younger men do more domestic housework and the British Social Attitudes found a long term change in attitudes

Question 18

2) Name another reason for the gender division of labour

Answer 18

Material or economic explanation, women earn less than men, so it is economically rational for them to do more domestic labour whilst men work paid jobs, Arber and Ginn (1995) found better paid women could buy in products such as childcare or cleaners rather than carrying out domestic tasks themselves, Crompton argues that because of the wage gap there is no incentive for ddol to change

Question 19

Same sex couples and gender scripts

Answer 19

Radical feminists argue that heterosexual relationships are inevitably patriarchal and unequal - even when women are in paid work contrasting with same sex relationships, Dunne argues that because of gender scripts heterosexuals are socialised to set out masculine and feminine roles whereas she studied 37 lesbians with kids and found that they shared ddol equally because they didn’t have traditional gender scripts however she did find no matter sexuality if someone did more paid work they did less domestic labour showing that economic factors are important

Question 20

Decision making and paid work introduction:

What do Paul and Vogel advocate?

Answer 20

Men take a greater share of resources and demand a bigger say in decisions because they earn more, they identify two types of control over family income;

Question 21

What is the The allowance system?
And
What is pooling?

Answer 21

Where men work and give their non working wives an allowance from which they budget the families income
Pooling is where partners work and have joint responsibility for spending e.g a joint bank account, pooling money doesn’t mean there is equality we need to know who controls the money and whether partners contribute equally

Question 22

What did Edgell (1980) find?

Answer 22

That even amongst professional couples both earning equal incomes, men make most of the important decisions and almost always have the final say, feminists argue that this is patriarchy in motion and less important decisions were made by women

Question 23

What is the radical feminist explanation for domestic violence?

Answer 23

(Can be used for questions about feminism in general) Radical feminists see domestic violence as a result of patriarchy, it is simply controlling and the suppression of women, they also control courts etc. To protect themselves and make under reporting more common, they are criticised for not discussing how men are abused or kids etc.

Question 24

What do Marxist feminists say about domestic violence?

Answer 24

They argue that WC men exploited at work take there anger out on their wives