Couples : Resources Decision making Domestic violence Flashcards
Couples : Resources Decision making Domestic violence
Resources and decision making
As well as inequality in who DOES what in the home There is also inequality in who GETS what and this is linked to Who controls the family’s income Who has the power to make decisions = Even in modern families (due to pay gap) this is usually the man in heterosexual couples
Resources and decision making : Barrett and McIntosh
Barrett and McIntosh study 1991 :
Men get more from women labour than they give back in financial support - Financial support from men often comes with strings attached E.g. demands of how house should be kept - Men make big decisions regarding money E.g. Selling house Going on holiday
Resources and decision making : Kempson
Kempson study 1994 :
In W/c families women often deny their own needs There is often no money ‘set aside’ for women E.g. for new clothes or fun activities So women see spending on themselves as denying money for their families/children
Resources and decision making : Graham
Graham study 1984 :
Interviewed separated women These women said their children were better off on benefits than when they were still married to their husband and were getting money from allowance system
Resources and decision making : Pahl and Vogler
Pahl and Vogler study 1993 :
Studied how each partner’s contribution to family income affects decision-making Found two types of control over family income - Pooling (Joint responsibility for expenditure E.g. Joint bank account) and Allowance (Husband earns as breadwinner Pays wife allowance for all expenditures Keeps surplus for self Usually for leisure activities)
Vogler study 1994 :
Recent years (1994) Sharp increase in pooling (19% to 50%) and decrease in allowance systems (36% to 12%)
Pooling is more common in dual earner households However men are still making major financial decisions It seems
Resources and decision making : Hardill
Hardill study 1997 :
Men careers still take priority Even in dual earner households
Resources and decision making : Finch
Finch study 1983 :
Women’s lives are shaped around their husband’s careers E.g. If the man got a new job abroad the woman would leave her job to move the family abroad This may not be vice versa
Resources and decision making : Edgell
Edgell study 1980 :
Ranked decisions - Very important (Financial, taken by husband) Important (Children and holidays, taken jointly) Less important (Decor/clothes/food, taken by wives)
This is often the case because men are still earning more than women in the workplace Due to pay gap
However feminists dispute this Say that this is actually caused by socialisation, gender scripts, and culture
Personal life perspective on money
Nyman study 2003 :
Suggests money has no automatic, fixed or natural meaning to it Every couple defines this and who controls it in a different way
E.g. Same-sex couples often give different meanings to control of money Some research suggests same-sex couples attached NO importance to who controls the money Linking to no gender scripts
Weeks study 2001 :
Found co-independence in couples Some sharing but both partner retains control over some money Retaining a sense of independence E.g. Having a joint account and an independent bank account each
Domestic violence
Women’s Aid Federation define DV as “Physical, psychological, sexual or financial violence that takes place within an intimate or family-type relationship and forms a pattern of coercive and controlling behaviour. It may involve partners, ex-partners, household members, or other relatives.”
Statistics Domestic Violence
Home Office 2013 found :
Year 2012 “Around 1.2 million women suffered domestic abuse, over 400,000 women were sexually assaulted, 70,000 women were raped and thousands more were stalked.”
British Crime Survey 2007 found :
Domestic violence accounts for almost 1/6 of all violent crime
Mirrlees-Black study 1999 :
Most victims of DV are women 99% of all incidents against women are committed by men Nearly 1 in 4 women have been assaulted by a partner at some time in her life 1 in 8 repeatedly so
Domestic violence : Dobash and Dobash
Dobash and Dobash studies 1979 and 2007 :
Research based in Scotland Based on police and court records and interviews with women in womens refuges Examples of wives being slapped, pushed, beaten, raped, and killed by husbands Violent incidents could be set off by what a husband saw as challenge to authority E.g. A wife asking why the husband was late home Therefore Dobash and Dobash argued that marriage legitimates violence by conferring power and authority on husbands and dependency on wives
Male victims of domestic violence
‘As a man, its very difficult to say Ive been beaten up’ - The Independent, April 14th 2013
“He struggles to keep it together when he recalls the day his girlfriend smashed a bottle of Jack Daniels across his head, leaving him bleeding on the pavement: a deep scar is still clearly visible on his forehead. But when the 45-year-old from Essex describes the relief of being believed by the authorities, he breaks down, his broad shoulders heaving beneath his rugby shirt.”
Why are men less likely to report being victims of domestic abuse?
1 in 3 victims of domestic abuse in Britain are male but refuge beds for men are critically scarce There are 78 spaces which can be used by men in refuges around Britain and only 33 are dedicated rooms for males (The rest can be taken up by any gender) This compares with around 4000 spaces for women In NI and Scotland there are no male refuges at all
Problems with studying domestic violence
Difficulty of obtaining valid information on the subject : Official police statistics rely on reports they receive from individuals and the recording of these incidents by the police
Other methods E.g. Interviews or self-completed questionnaires also have issues : People may refuse to answer, misunderstand the question, lie, exaggerate or forget The researcher may also misunderstand or misclassify the answers
Male researchers may also get different answers than female researchers
There are also difficulties in defining domestic violence
Problems in identifying domestic violence
Stephanie Yearnshire study 1997 :
Found a woman will suffer abuse 35 times on average before making a report It is ‘violent crime’ that is least likely to be reported Police and prosecutors may be unlikely to want to record, investigate, prosecute these cases as it is seen as ‘domestic/ family matter ‘ Do not want to get involved with the family
