Division of Labour Flashcards
Parsons roles in the family
Expressive role = primary socialisation (homemaker)
Instrumental role = achieving success at work (breadwinner)
Young + Willmot (1950) w/c families
Traditional working class extended families in East London
Young + Willmot (1962)
Men are now taking a greater share of domestic tasks; wives are now wage owners
Young + Willmot (1973)
Family life is gradually improving for all of its members
Segregated conjugal roles
The couple have separate roles in the home, including separate leisure activities
Joint conjugal roles
The couple share tasks in the home, including the same leisure activities
Symmetrical family
Women now go to work (part-time rather than full-time)
Men now help with the housework and child care
Feminists view
Rejects Parsons view that division of labour is natural; it only benefits men
Ann Oakley’s view - ❌ symmetrical
The family is now far from symmetrical (Evaluating Young + Willmot’s view)
March of progress view - Gershuny(1944)
housewives did 83% of the house work; full time workers did 73%
Ferri + Smith (1996) - men in households
Men take responsibility of childcare in 4% of households
Braun et al (2011) - father = main carer
Father as the main carer in 3 out of 70 families
Duncombe + Marsden (1995) - ‘triple shift’
Women have to perform the ‘triple shift’ of
• Housework
• Paid work
• Emotional work
Radical feminist view
Believe that Heterosexual relationships are patriarchal
Two reasons why there are inequalities in decision making
Cultural - male being dominant decision makers instilled through primary socialisation
Material - males mostly earn the money
Kempson (1994) - w/c women
Women from lower income families make more sacrifices of eating less food to make ends meet
Gershuny (1994) - couples + housework
Couples more likely to share housework if their parents did
Crime survey for England + Wales - D.V. statistics
found that 2000 people reported having been victims of domestic abuse during 2012
Coleman et al - women + D.V
women were more likely than men to experience domestic violence
Yearnshire - reporting D.V.
on average a woman suffers 35 assaults before making a report
D.V. less likely to be reported
Cheal - report of D.V. to police
police and prosecutors may be reluctant to record
- agencies not prepared to get involved in the family
Three assumptions about family life
- the family is a private sphere
= agencies should be limited - family is a good thing
= agencies neglect the ‘darker side’ of family life - individuals are free agents; not actually able to leave
= lack of prosecution
The Radical feminist explanation - D.V.
the role of patriarchal ideas in the family + marriage
cultural ideas male domination
institutions maintain D.V. occurring
The materialist explanation
economic factors such lack of resources
