Couples And Gender Roles✔️

Question 1

What do Functionalists think about traditional family roles e.g. PARSONS?

Answer 1

He says that the division of labour is based on biological differences - men have an instrumental role while women are expressive = it’s pre-determined!

Question 2

What do Functionalists like Willmott and Young say?

Answer 2

They say that there has been a march of progress.

1950 a surgery showed that there were very traditional roles

1960 it showed that women are also working, they believe it is becoming more symmetrical and more egalitarian.

Question 3

How do Feminists react to the Functionalist views?

Answer 3

They recognise that some changes have taken place but argue that the domestic division of labour is still unequal - they reject Functionalist ideas.

Question 4

What are the two types of Conjugal Role relationships?

Answer 4

• Joint

- Segregated

Question 5

What are Joint Conjugal relationships like?

Answer 5

Less gender specific and more egalitarian.

Question 6

What are Segregated Conjugal role relationships like?

Answer 6

More patriarchal and unequal.

Question 7

How do Functionalists like Wilmott and Young view the domestic division of labour?

Answer 7

They take a “march of progress” view. They believe that there has been a long term trend away from Segregated relationships.

Question 8

According to Functionalists, how did the more egalitarian relationships start?

Answer 8

Due to the principle of stratified diffusion. It started in the middle class then worked its way down to become the norm.

Question 9

What is the Principle of Stratified Diffusion?

Answer 9

When a chance starts at the top of the class system then began to “trickle” and “diffuse” down to the other classes.

Question 10

Why is there a more egalitarian marriage according to Functionalists?

Answer 10

Because women are now more likely to work outside of the home in paid employment.

Question 11

What is the Bargaining Position?

Answer 11

When the Conjugal role relationship changed because women are also working and now have more power with their money - so they insist that men should help in the house if women are helping with the money.

Question 12

Younger couples are more likely to have Joint and integrated roles because…

Answer 12

They have grown up in a time where women’s rights exist.

Question 13

How would Geographical Mobility contribute to symmetrical roles?

Answer 13

Because if families move away from their neighbourhood, they have less support and therefore rely on eachother - both work.

Question 14

How did the Feminist Oakley argue with the “march of progress” view imposed by Functionalists:

Answer 14

“The sociology of Housework” this Functionalist survey was criticised as the sole activity of ironing a shirt is in that statistic.

In her research, only 15% men had a high participation in housework and only 25% had a high level with childcare.

Question 15

Why is it bad if men are said to “help” around the house?

Answer 15

The word help implies that it is still the woman’s responsibility and the man is doing her a favor although it is also his home environment which he should maintain:

Question 16

What research supported Oakley’s findings?

Answer 16

WARDE Et al found that 42% of males thought they do less than fair share.

Ferri and Smith found that increased employment of women had no impact on redistribution of domestic and child care responsibilities.

Question 17

What problems might there be in trying to research how much housework people do? (2)

Answer 17

• Housework is too much of a broad term - what classes as it?
• people may not be truthful.

Question 18

The impact of paid work

Give some findings from Functionalists about women who work full time:

Answer 18

GERSHUNY - found that wives who weren’t employed did more housework compared to those who were employed.

Question 19

What does Gershuny say about ‘lagged adaption’ - what is it?

Answer 19

Lagged adaption is a change that takes a lot of time - it is lagged. He says that there has been a gradual change in social values.

Question 20

What did MAN YEE KAN find?

Answer 20

That income, age and education affected how much housework women did - the better paid, younger and better educated women did less housework.

Question 21

What did the British social attitudes survey find?

Answer 21

Only 13% of men and 12% of women agreed to the view that it was a man’s job to earn money and a woman’s job to look after the house and family.

Question 22

Many feminists argue…

Answer 22

There is no such thing as a ‘new man’ who is sharing domestic work but instead women now have a DUAL BURDEN.

Question 23

Feminists also look at positivity, how do they say that economic developments has lessened the burden of housework on women?

Answer 23

Silver and Schor say that Improvements has made it easier for housework to be done - HOWEVER, this does not show that couples are sharing it just means that there are less tasks to do.

Question 24

What did the British Social Attitudes survery find which supports Feminists?

Answer 24

That on average men did 8 hours in comparison to women’s 13 hours on housework a week.

Question 25

What did Braun, Vincent and Ball find?

Answer 25

That only 3 families out of 70 Studied , the father was he main carer. So women are more active in childcare.

Question 26

What do Duncombe and Marsden say about women’s “triple shift” of labour?

Answer 26

That women are also expected to do “emotional work” where there are supposed to monitor the worries and frustrations of their families too.

This is confirmed by Hochschild who did more research.

Question 27

All the research by Feminists and other groups show that…

Answer 27

The increased trend for women in paid employment has barely an effect on the nature of Conjugal role relationships.

Question 28

What did Crompton and Lyonette identify?

Answer 28

Two different explanations for the unequal division of labour:

Question 29

What were the two different explanations for the unequal division of labour?

Answer 29

• the cultural or ideological explanation of inequality.

- the material or economic explanation of inequality.

Question 30

Explain “the cultural or ideological explanation of inequality”

How can equality be achieved?

Answer 30

In this view, the division of labour is influenced by patriarchal norms and values that shape gender roles in our culture. Women do domestic tasks while men are the breadwinners.

From this perspective, equality can only happen if norms and values change.

Question 31

Explain the “material or economic explanation of inequality”

How can equality be achieved?

Answer 31

In this view, the fact that women generally earn less than men is used to justify their greater responsibility for housework and childcare.

From this perspective, equality can only be achieved when women earn as much as men do a more equal division of labour can emerge.

Question 32

What does Dunnes do to study same sex relationships?

Answer 32

37 lesbians studied (who have children) and they are more likely to have a equal relationship and share things.

Question 33

Why does Dunnes say that same sex relationships are more likely to be equal?

Answer 33

Because both partners are of the same sex do they don’t have any specific gender scripts (this supports radical feminists in their view that all women and men relationships are patriarchal) this is because division of labour is based on negotiation, not partiarchal traditions.

Question 34

Did Dunne find that paid work impact the domestic division of labour is same sex relationships?

Answer 34

Yes because when one partner did more paid work, the time that each partner spent on domestic work is also likely to be unequal.

Question 35

What did Barrett and McIntosh say when it comes to power and finances in a relationship?

Answer 35

Men gain far more than women’s domestic work than they give back in financial support and men usually make the decisions about spending on important items.

Question 36

Research shows that family members don’t share resources such as money and food equally…

Who is usually the one who sacrifices their needs?

Answer 36

Kempson found that among low income families, women denied their own needs to make ends meet.

Question 37

In some households, do women even have entitlement to a share of household resources?

Answer 37

NO

And that means she is likely to feel guilty about anything she spends on herself.

Question 38

What did PAHL do?

Answer 38

Her study was based on interviews with 102 individuals - who had joint bank accounts and who had seperate.

Question 39

What did PAHL find?

Answer 39

That there are two main types of control over family income:

• POOLING (both partners have a joint bank account and both worked full time)
• ALLOWANCE SYSTEM (men gave their wives an allowance - like pocket money which is used to budget to meet the family’s needs) THIS IS LESS COMMON NOWADAYS.

Question 40

According to Engel, how can you effectively asses the division of labour?

Answer 40

By studying decision making - who makes the decisions.

He found that men made financial decisions / moving house / change job etc

Important decisions about children’s education / holidays were taken by women alone or shared.

Less important decisions like home decor / children’s clothes purchases were taken by the wife.

Question 41

What study did Hardill carry out?

Answer 41

Studies 30 dual career couples and found that the male’s career often took priority when deciding to move house / a new job.

Question 42

By 1995….

Answer 42

Gershuny and Laurie found that 70% or coupled said they had an equal day of decisions.

Question 43

Women who were high earning and well qualified are…

Answer 43

More likely to have an equal say according to Gershuny.

Question 44

What does the Personal Life Perspective against inequality being expressed by money:

Answer 44

That pooling money doesn’t necessarily mean there’s an equal relationship & you should focus on the meanings couple give to who controles the money … SMART found that some gay and lesbian couples held no important to who controlled the money etc

Question 45

What can be the consequences of unequal power? (3)

Answer 45

• abuse
• oppression
• depression / mental health

ETC

Question 46

What is a common view of domestic violence?

Answer 46

That it is the behaviour of a few disturbed individuals and that it’s causes are psychological rather than social.

Question 47

How do sociologists challenge the view:

Answer 47

• it’s too widespread to just be a few disturbed people. 1 in 4 women!
• it’s not random because Walby and Allen found that women were more likely to be victims of multiple incidents of abuse/ sexual violence.

Question 48

How can violent incidents be set off according to Dobash and Dobash?

Answer 48

By what a husband saw as a challenge to his authority - they argue that marriage legitimises violence against women by conferring power and authority on husbands.

Question 49

Why do official statistics on domestic violence understate the true extent of the problem? (2)

Answer 49

• victims don’t report it, on average it takes 35 assaults for a woman to report it.
• police may bb reluctant to record it as agencies tend to neglect the darker side of the family / not want to get involved.

Question 50

Police assume that…

Answer 50

Women are free to leave - this isn’t the case as abused women are often financially dependent.

Question 51

How do radical feminists explain domestic violence?

Answer 51

Family and marriage causes the oppression of women and males dominate women through domestic violence - this explains why it happens to women by men!

Question 52

How can you criticise the radical feminist view on domestic violence?

Answer 52

• not all men are aggressive
• doesn’t explain abuse to males… 18% of men have experienced domestic violence according to the Crime Survery for England and Wales.

Question 53

What type of women are more likely to experience domestic bookends according to the Office for National Statistics?

Answer 53

• young women
• low income
• illness / disability

Question 54

How does the materialist explanation explain domestic violence?

Answer 54

They believe it’s caused by inequalities in income and housing - worries about money and job can convert into conflict.

• lack of money and time also restricts people’s social circle and reduces help for them when they need it.

WILKINSON AND PICKETT found that Lower income people are at a higher risk.

Question 55

How can you criticise the materialist explanation on domestic violence?

Answer 55

Doesn’t explain why women rather than men are main victims.

Question 56

What do Marxists think cause domestic violence?

Criticise it:

Answer 56

Inequality - it is caused by capitalism and men are exploited at work and take it out on their wives who, Fran Ansley says, are TAKERS OF SHIT.

However, doesn’t explain why not all male workers do this.

Question 57

Give 2 examples of honour killings:

Answer 57

• Shafilea Ahmed , so scared of a forced marriage that she drank bleach in a failed suicide attempt.
• Heshu Younes was hacked to death by her Kurdish Muslim father because he believed she had a boyfriend.