Couples - Housework Flashcards
Parsons: nuclear family
Husband -> instrumental role: gear towards financial success. breadwinner
Wife -> expressive role: geared towards primary socialisation of children and meeting the children needs. She is the homemaker.
Argument
Division of labour is based off biological differences with women naturally suited to the nurturing role and men to that of the provider and its beneficial to wider society.
Criticism.
Young and Willmott: Men are now taking a greater share of domestic tasks and more wives are becoming wage earners.
Feminists argue that it is not natural and only benefits men.
Joint and segregated roles
Bott
Segregated: when couples have separate roles: a male breadwinner and female career. Leisure times also tend to be separate.
Conjugal: couple share tasks as housework and childcare and spend leisure time together.
Symmetrical family
Young and Willmott
Take a march of progress view. They see family life as becoming more equal and democratic. With roles becoming more similar.
-Men now help with house work and child care
Young and Willmott study
Symmetrical families were more common amongst younger couples, those who are geographically and socially isolated and the more affluent.
Why do they happen ?
As a result of social change
-changes in women’s position
-Geographically mobility
-New technology
-Higher standards of living
Feminist view
Men and women remain unequal within the family and women still do most of the housework. They see this inequality is stemming from the fact that the family and society are male male dominated or patriarchal women occupied a subordinate independent role within the family and wider society.
Oakley
In her own research on housewives Oakley found some evidence of husbands helping in the home but no evidence of a trend towards symmetry. Only 15% of husbands had high-level participation in house work and only 25% at high levels of participation in childcare.
Boulton
Fewer than 20% of husbands had a major role in childcare. She argues that young and will more exaggerate men’s contribution by looking at the tasks rather than responsibility.
Warde and Hetherington
Sex-typing of domestic tasks reminded strong. Waves were 30 times more likely to be the last person to have done the washing while husbands with four times more likely to have been the last person to wash the car.
Continued…
They also found that men only carried out routine “female” tasks when their partners were not around.
