Couples

Question 1

Feminism

Answer 1

Very critical of functionalism and the rosy view of March of Progress theorists. Oakley argues that husbands ‘helping’ doesn’t equate to symmetry.

Question 2

Functionalism

Answer 2

gender roles in the family are clearly divided, men fulfil an instrumental role where women fill the expressive role, reflecting natural differences.

Question 3

March of Progress

Answer 3

Wilmots and Young see family life as moving towards symmetrical roles, couples are more socially mobile.

Question 4

Housework

Answer 4

• Women do twice as much work than men
• Domestic tasks are heavily gender focused (women do cooking, men do DIY)
• 10% of people believe in traditional gender roles

Question 5

Childcare - Bolton

Answer 5

• Men helped but didn’t take full responsibility
• Women put their own lives before that of children
• Only 18% men give extensive help, 46% gave minimal

Question 6

Childcare - Ferri and Smith

Answer 6

• Little evidence of equal sharing household chores
• In less that 4% of families them man was the primary carer
• Men will more likely do fun tasks (eg. going to the park) while women are more likely to look after children when they are sick.
• Women’s employment has little effect on division of labour

Question 7

Childcare - Braun et al

Answer 7

• Most men are ‘background fathers’

* Mothers and fathers share the view of the carer-breadwinner division

Question 8

Childcare - Buncombe and Marsden

Answer 8

• Women take on ‘emotion work’ ‘payed work’ and ‘house work’
• They take on the responsibility for breadwinning, keeping people happy and maintaining a home environment

Question 9

Decision making - Vogler’s Finance

Answer 9

• Pooling increased to 50% but majority still have unequal financial control, despite the increase in women employment.
• Wife controlled systems more common in low-income families

Question 10

Decision - making - Hardill

Answer 10

In dual career couples, the men’s careers came first

Question 11

Domestic violence - Dobash and Dobash

Answer 11

• Interviews with 137 female victims
• 25% of all serious assaults and 20% of all recorded crimes were domestic though many go unrecorded
• Women are made dependent as wives and mothers
• In wider society women are oppressed (in the work place and social norms) and in the situation they are economically dependent and responsible for childcare.

Question 12

DV - official statistics

Answer 12

• Official statistics are likely to under-estimate
• Domestic violence is unlikely to be reported- fear of reprisals, economic dependency and fear
• Family can be considered ‘private’ business by the police and so they may not want to be involved in prosecution.

Question 13

DV - radical feminist

Answer 13

• male violence is an inevitable part of patriarchal society, and enforced male dominance (enforced by male dominated institutions such as the police force)
• This does not explain the female violence towards men or violence in same sex couples, also some men do not choose to be violent.

Question 14

DV - materialist

Answer 14

• Close link between domestic abuse and inequality - low income, poor housing and job insecurity are fuel
• This does not explain why the victims are predominantly female

Question 15

Building on Dobash and Dobash

Answer 15

• Women are likely to be victims of multiple attacks
• It is difficult to quantify the number of attacks as some women may never report them
• There are likely to be severe psychological effects
• Some domestic abuse happens against males
• Young, disabled, deprived and alcohol and drug abusers are the most at risk group

Question 16

Money - evaluation

Answer 16

Pooling money does not mean inequality, but who decided what to do with it that matters, also, if they are concerned with having/lacking the control
• Weeks et al (2001) found that most couples pooled money for household spending and kept the remainder individually.