Couples Flashcards
THE DOMESTIC DIVISION OF LABOUR
Parsons
In the traditional nuclear family, the roles of husbands and wives are segregated
In Talcott Parsons’ (1955) functionalist model of the family there is a clear division of labour between spouses:
The husband has an instrumental role: geared towards achieving success at work so he can provide for the family financially. He is the breadwinner
The wife has an expressive role: geared towards primary socialisation of the children and meeting the family’s emotional needs. She is the homemaker, a full-time housewife rather than wage earner
Parson argues division of labour is based on biological differences
Women naturally suited towards nurturing role
Claims division is beneficial for both women and men, children and wider society
Criticisms of Parsons roles
Michael young and Peter Willmott (1962) argue men now taking a greater share of domestic tasks and more wives becoming wage earners
Feminist reject Parsons’ views that it’s natural - argue only benefits men
Joint and segregated roles
Elizabeth Bott (1957) distinguishes between two types of conjugal roles within marriage:
Segregated conjugal roles: couple have separate roles
Male - breadwinner
Female - homemaker/carer
Leisure activities tend to be separate
Joint conjugal roles: couples share tasks
Spend leisure time together
Young and Willmott identified pattern of segregated conjugal roles in study of traditional working-class extended families in Bethnal Green, east London in the 1950s Men - breadwinners, little part in homelife, leisure time with work mates in pubs/clubs Women - full-time housewives, responsibility was housework/childcare, limited leisure and was spent with female kin
The symmetrical family
Young and willmott (1973) - march of progress view
Family life gradually improving for all members
Becoming more equal, democratic
Argue - long term trend away from segregated conjugal roles and towards joint and symmetrical family
Symmetrical family - roles not identical but similar
Women now go to work although mainly part-time
Men help out with housework and childcare
Spend leisure time together
In study of london - symmetrical family more common among younger couples, geographically isolated and the more affluent
They see rise of this as result of major changes during past century:
Changes in women’s position
Geographical mobility - living away from communities where they grew up
New technology and labour saving devices
Higher standards of living
Interlinked - women bringing in second wage raises standard of living - afford labour saving devices - housework easier - encourages men to do more
A feminist view of housework
Reject march of progress view
Argue little has changed - women still do most housework
See this inequality as stemming from fact that family and society is male-dominated or patriarchal
Women occupy subordinate and dependent role within family and wider society
A feminist view of housework
Ann Oakley (1974)
Ann Oakley (1974) criticises Young and Willmott’s view family is symmetrical. Argues claims are exaggerated Y+W found husbands helped at least once a week but could be taking children for walk, or making breakfast - Oakley found this hardly convincing evidence
In her own research of housewives - found some husbands help but no trend towards symmetry
Only 15% of husbands had high level of participation in housework
25% high participation in childcare
Husbands only took part in pleasurable aspects of childcare - “take them off her hands on sunday morning”
Defined father’s role as one of “taking an interest”
Mothers often lost rewards of childcare - left with more time for housework
A feminist view of housework
Mary Boulton (1983)
Research supports Oakley
20% husbands major role in childcare
Argues W+Y exaggerate men’s contributions by looking at tasks rather than responsibilities - mother was always responsible men would help with specific tasks
A feminist view of housework
Alan Warde and Kevin Hetherington (1993)
found sex typing of domestic tasks remained strong
Wives 30 times more likely to be last person to do washing
Husbands four times more likely to be last to wash car
In general they found men would carry out routine female tasks when partners were not around
However, found slight change of attitude among younger men
ARE COUPLES BECOMING MORE EQUAL?
The impact of paid work
Oakley
Oakley’s study 1970s - most women full-time housewives
Today - more wives go out to work
Is it leading to equal distribution or do wives have a “dual burden”
The march of progress view
Jonathan Gershuny (1994)
argues that women working full-time is leading to more equal division of labour. Using time studies - these women do less domestic work than other women
The march of progress view
Oreil Sullivan’s (2000)
analysis of nationally representative data collected in 1975, 1987, 1997 found trend towards women doing smaller share of domestic work and men doing more
Also showed increase in couples with equal division - men participating more in traditional women’s tasks
The march of progress view
British Social Attitudes survey (2013)
Trends reflect changes in attitudes
found fall in people who think man’s job is to earn money and women’s to look after home/family
1984 - 45% men 41% women agreed with view
2012 - 13% men agreed 12% women agreed
The feminist view
British Social Attitudes survey
How much do men do?
2012 - on average 8 hours of housework a week, women did 13 hours
Men spent 10 hours on childcare, women spent 23 hours
Overall women did twice as much
60% of women felt division was unjust - doing more than fair share
The feminist view
British Social Attitudes survey
Who does what?
Divide tasks along traditional gender lines
Women much more likely to do laundry, grocery shop, clean, prepare meals
Men - repairs around house
These patterns are very similar to that of 1994
The feminist view
Graham Allan (1985)
The survey does not measure the qualitative differences in the tasks performed.
Graham Allen (1985) argues women’s tasks such as washing and cleaning are less intrinsically satisfying
Taking responsibility for children
Boulton (1983) and the issues of these surveys
Such surveys only focus on easily quantifiable aspects such as who performs which tasks or how much time they spend doing them
These surveys tell us nothing about who takes responsibility for ensuring tasks are done
Boulton (1983) points out that although fathers may help by performing specific childcare tasks, it is usually the mother who takes responsibility for the child’s security and well-being
Taking responsibility for children
Ferri and Smith (1996)
found fathers took responsibility for childcare in fewer than 4% of families
support Boulton
Taking responsibility for children
Dex and Ward (2007)
found although fathers had quite levels of involvement with their 3 year olds (78% played with their children) when it came to caring for sick child only 1% took main responsibility
support Boulton
Taking responsibility for children
Braun, Vincent and Ball (2011)
only 3 out of 70 families was father main carer
Most were “background fathers” - helping with childcare more about relationship with partner than responsibility towards child.
Most held “provider ideology” that their role was breadwinner and women primary carers - underpinned by “intensive mothering” in media telling women how to be good mothers
support Boulton
Taking responsibility for children
Emotion work and triple shift
Arlie Russell Hochschild (2013)
Feminists noted women are required to perform emotion work where they are responsible for managing emotions and feelings of family members - handling squabbles, ensuring everyone is happy while exercising control of own emotions
Taking responsibility for children
Emotion work and triple shift
Jean Duncombe and Dennis Marsden (1995)
argue women have to perform a “triple shift” of housework, paid work and emotion work
Taking responsibility for quality time
Dale Southerton (2011)
Usually falls to mothers
Quality time has become increasingly difficult in today’s late modern society due to 24/7 society and flexible working patterns
Led to people’s time being more fragmented and ‘de-routinised’
Southerton notes although some studies show men and women have equal leisure time, they have different experiences of it
Women’s leisure time is punctuated by childcare. Women are also more likely to multi-task than men which indicates they are carrying a dual burden in which they face an increased volume of activities to be managed
Explaining the gender division of labour
Rosemary Crompton and Claire Lyonette (2008)
The cultural or ideological explanation of inequality: division determined by patriarchal norms and values.
Women perform more domestic labour simply because it’s what society expects them to do and has socialised them to do
The material or economic explanation: women generally earn less means it is economically rational for women to do more housework and childcare while men spend more time earning money
Explaining the gender division of labour
Rosemary Crompton and Claire Lyonette (2008)
Evidence for cultural explanation
Gershuny (1994)
found couples whose parents had a more equal relationship are more likely to share housework equally. This suggests parental role models are important. He argues social values are gradually adapting to the fact women are now working full-time, establishing a new norm that men should do more work
Explaining the gender division of labour
Rosemary Crompton and Claire Lyonette (2008)
Evidence for cultural explanation
Man Yee Kan (2001)
found younger men do more domestic work.
Future Foundation (2000) most men claimed to do more work than their fathers and women less work than their mothers - suggests generational shift in behaviour
Explaining the gender division of labour
Rosemary Crompton and Claire Lyonette (2008)
Evidence for cultural explanation
The British Social Attitudes Survey (2013)
found less than 10% of under 35s agreed with traditional division of labour, as against 30% of over 65s
This indicates long term change in norms, values and attitudes, reflecting changes in the gender role socialisation of younger age groups in favour of more equal relationships
Explaining the gender division of labour
Rosemary Crompton and Claire Lyonette (2008)
Evidence for cultural explanation
Gillian Dunne (1999)
found lesbian couples had more symmetrical relationships because of absence of traditional heterosexual “gender scripts”
Explaining the gender division of labour
Rosemary Crompton and Claire Lyonette (2008)
Evidence for material explanation
Kan
found for every £10,000 a year more a woman earns, she does two hours less housework per week
Explaining the gender division of labour
Rosemary Crompton and Claire Lyonette (2008)
Evidence for material explanation
Sara, Arber and Jay Ginn (1995)
found better-paid, middle class women were more able to buy commercially produced products and services to help out with domestic labour and childcare rather than having to spend time carrying out labour-intensive domestic tasks
Explaining the gender division of labour
Rosemary Crompton and Claire Lyonette (2008)
Evidence for material explanation
Xavier Ramos (2005)
found where the woman is the full-time breadwinner and the man is unemployed, he does as much domestic labour as she does
Explaining the gender division of labour
Rosemary Crompton and Claire Lyonette (2008)
Evidence for material explanation
Sullivan
Sullivan shows working full-time rather than part-time makes biggest difference in how much domestic work each partner does. Sullivan suggests this may be because full-time work brings women’s earnings much closer to partners
Explaining the gender division of labour
Rosemary Crompton and Claire Lyonette (2008)
Conclusion
Women often earn less - part-time work to look after child
Rosemary Crompton (1997) thus concludes there is no immediate prospect of more equal division if this depends on economic equality between sexes
RESOURCES AND DECISION-MAKING IN HOUSEHOLDS
Michelle Barrett and Mary McIntosh (1991)
Men gain far more from women’s domestic work than they give back in financial support
The financial support that husbands give to wives is often unpredictable and comes with “strings attached”
Men usually make decisions about spending on important items
Elaine Kempson (1994)
found among low income families, woman denied their own needs, seldom going out, and eating smaller portions of food or skipping meals altogether in order to make ends meet
Inequality regarding resources within households
In many households a woman has no entitlement to a share of resources - likely to see anything she spends on herself as money ought to be spent on children
Even in households with adequate incomes, resources may be shared unequally leaving women in poverty
Money management
Jan Pahl and Carolyn Voyager (1993)
identify two main types of control over family income:
The allowance system: men give wife an allowance which they have to budget to meet family’s needs with man retaining surplus income for himself
Pooling: both partners have access to income and joint responsibility for expenditure
Pooling is now most common money management system
Decision-making
Pahl and Voyager (2007)
Often assumed pooling indicates equality in decision making and control over resources and more common amongst couples who both work full-time
However, where pooled income is controlled by the husband = more power in financial decisions
Pahl and Voyager (2007) found even where there was pooling, men usually made major financial decisions
Decision-making
Irene Hardill’s (19997)
study of 30 dual-career professional couples found important decisions were usually taken by man alone or jointly and his career normally took priority when deciding to move house for a new job.
Supports Janet Finch’s (1983) observation that women’s lives tend to be structured around husbands careers
