Couples : Domestic division of labour and impact of paid work Flashcards
Learn about the domestic division of labour and the impact of paid work. Families and households - couples topic
Family vs Household
Household : A group of people who are living together who are not necessarily related E.g. A group of uni students living together
Family : More difficult to define Murdock a functionalist sociologist said that the family is just the nuclear family However modernist contemporary sociologists say that anyone who wants to define themselves as a family is a family E.g. If a boyfriend and girlfriend live together and say they are a family, they are a family
Couples and domestic division of labour
In the 19th century The couples and family were very patriarchal (Male dominated)
Women were seen as property
At marriage, any property the woman owned E.g. Her house and her money, were handed over to her husband
Divorce was very rare but grounds for divorce were unequal - Only men could file for divorce and only in extreme circumstances E.g. If their wife committed adultery
The domestic division of labour refers to the roles that men and women play in relation to Housework Childcare Paid work - Sociologists are interested do men and women share domestic tasks equally
Parsons Instrumental role VS Expressive role
Instrumental role - Breadwinner - Male role
Expressive role - Homemaker - Female role
Parsons say these roles are rooted in the biology of men and women
Men are stronger, they can take on manual tasks - Instrumental
Women can have children, they are more caring and nurturing - Expressive
Parsons ideas are supported by conservative thinkers such as Neoliberal/ new right - It has been this way for many years and replicated in many societies, therefore it is the correct way
Parsons ideas are criticised by modern thinkers such as feminists - Women now increasingly work due to changing position of women, and arguably the old system benefited men They could come home to a nice cooked dinner and their children in bed but the woman had to cook, clean, and care for the children all day Women no longer dependent on men for money
Elizabeth Bott 1957 Segregated conjugal roles VS Joint conjugal roles
Bott distinguished two types of conjugal roles Conjugal meaning related to marriage
Segregated conjugal roles : Found in traditional nuclear family Women have their roles of homemaker Men have their roles of breadwinner Men spend leisure time with male colleagues at E.g. pub Women spend leisure time with female kin at home
Joint conjugal roles : Found in contemporary families Women and men share Housework and childcare tasks They spend leisure time together E.g. Going out for a meal together
The symmetrical family
Young and Willmott study late 1950s :
Study of W/c families in East London (Bethnal Green)
Found that although these families were still very traditional Things were changing (March of progress view)
Found : Women working more, Men doing more housework, Couple becoming more privatised (Bott Spending leisure time together)
A move towards joint conjugal roles
This was due to changes in society such as : Changing position of women - Women no longer seen as property, can work, have the vote Etc., Geographical mobility - Industrialisation led to companies moving around and employees having to move around to work for their company, leading to decline in traditional extended family as smaller nuclear family is more easy to uproot and move around, New technology - Labour-saving devices E.g. Microwaves, irons, hoovers Men wanted to get involved as due to their socialisation men like gadgets, Higher standards of living - Families can now afford to do things together more due to E.g. Pay rise and dual earner family E.g. Go on holiday together
The feminist view of housework
Ann Oakley 1974 study :
Interviews with husbands
Oakley agree there is some evidence of an increase in men doing housework but she criticises the march of progress view Young and Willmott
She argues that the husbands she interviewed only helped with housework once a week - This is not symmetrical
She also found that the husbands she interviewed said they were good fathers because they played with their children in the evenings and at the weekend, but Oakley argues this just frees up time for women to do more housework
Ann Oakley 1974 also found :
Domestic labour is sex-typed : Women do housework cooking cleaning Men do DIY and gardening
Women still do most housework and men do the more rewarding aspect of childcare : E.g. Mum has to discipline children and tell them to do their homework Dad takes children out and buys ice cream at the park
Men get half an hour a day more ‘free time’ than women : Women cannot relax in their home as they think they should be doing housework
The impact of paid work
Since Ann Oakley study in 1970s It is now the norm for cohabiting or married women to work and bring a second income The vast majority now work
Man-Yee Kan study 2001 found :
Younger, better-paid, more educated women did less housework per week March of progress view
Jonathan Gershuny study 1994 found :
Women working full-time did less housework The longer they worked full-time, the more housework their husband completed Couples whose parents had more equal relationship are likely to have equal relationship Gershuny explains this in two ways - Due to a gradual change in societies values (Women now work and more independent) and Change in parental models (Couples more equal now and they model this to their children Children no longer seen and not heard) However, Gershuny agreed with Oakley that domestic labour is sex-typed
Rosemary Crompton study 1997 say :
Changes in domestic division of labour are related to economic factors The more women earn the more housework the man does But woman’s pay is only 3/4 of men’s pay So as long as pay is unequal Housework will be unequal as well The amount women do compared to men
British social attitudes survey 2013 found :
There has been a fall in the number of people who think mans job is breadwinner and womans job is homemaker
The dual burden
Many feminists say there is little evidence for the ‘new man’
Ferri and Smith 1996 found :
Women now have a ‘dual burden’ of housework and paid work
Morris 1990 found :
Even unemployed men avoid housework
This was critiqued by Ramos 2003 He found total equality in this situation
Emotion work and the triple shift
The term ‘emotion work’ was coined by Hochschild in 1983 : Meaning to deal with one’s own or another person’s emotions
Morgan 1997 applied it to families
Duncome and Marsden 1995 found :
Women undertake most ‘emotion work’ when their husbands or children are feeling upset Hence women have a ‘triple shift’ - Emotion work Housework Paid work
Questions asked by sociologists
Are couples becoming more equal?
Is symmetrical family a lasting trend?
Are we seeing the ‘new man’ who is actively involved in domestic labour?
: march of progress view
Are women carrying ‘dual burden’/’triple shift’ of Paid work Housework/childcare and Emotion work?
: feminist view
Summary
Evidence shows some movement towards equality but not much E.g. Women say they spend twice as many hours as men doing housework
Evidence highly conflicted showing paradoxical trends
Equality for responsibility of housework and childcare appears some way off
Lesbian couples and gender scripts
Gender scripts : Expectations of men and women in relationships based on gender
Dunne 1999 say :
Division of labour continues in straight couples due to gender scripts But gender scripts do not exist in homosexual couples
Weeks 1999 say :
Same-sex relationships offer more opportunities to negotiate roles = more equal
