Does the family benefit its members? Flashcards
Division of Labour, Power Relationships, and Dark Side of the Family
How does Parsons believe domestic labour should be divided?
AO1/3
- Instrumental role = male breadwinner
- Expressive role = female homemaker
- This segregation of roles is natural and allows the family to properly socialise children and stabilise adult personalities
What are the 2 types of conjugal roles?
AO1
Conjugal roles are the roles played by a male and female partner in marriage or in a cohabiting relationship
1. Segregated conjugal roles: unequal division of domestic labour based on gender norms the man is able to engage in more leisure activities whereas the woman has to spend most time on housework
2. Joint conjugal roles: domestic labour is more evenly divided and egalitarian - both men and women have roles within the family - couple typically have loose knit friendships as they spend much of their leisure time together
What sociologists suggest women take on emotional work?
AO1/3
- Hochschild: women are often required to take on responsibility for managing emotions of family members - ‘emotion work’
- Duncombe and Marsden: triple shift = paid work + house work + emotional work
- Delphy and Leonard: women act as a ‘safety valve’ releasing and managing tension in the family - listen to emotional problems, act as mediators, create sense of belonging
- Southerton: mothers have to coordinate their schedules to manage family’s quality time together
- Ansley: women absorb male anger and are the ‘takers of shit’
How can we analyse women having to take on emotional work?
AO3
- Parsons: this expressive role helps stabilise adult personalities and allow the family to act as a ‘warm bath’ for men
- Zaretsky: this allows the family to be a safe haven
What sociologists argue conjugal roles are uneven?
AO1/3
- Braun, Vincent, and Ball: in only 3/70 households studied were men main carers - in most other cases men were background fathers. When men get involved with children it is seen as ‘helping’ their partner this is because they don’t see looking after children as their primary responsibility as a father - ‘provider ideology’
- Ferri and Smith: fathers rarely take care of their children - only 41% took main responsibilites
- Dex and Ward: fathers have a high level of participation with 3 yr olds - 78% played with children whereas only 1% continued to take care of them when the children were sick
How can we analyse conjugal roles being uneven?
AO3
- Postmodernists: ‘death of the metanarrative’ - provider ideology is in decline as ideologies of masculinity and femininity are changing
- Paternity leave is much shorter than maternity leave - only 2 weeks - reinforces the idea that taking after the children is the woman’s job
- Parsons sees this gendered division of labour as natural
What is the symmetrical family?
AO1/3
Wilmott and Young: Symmetrical Family - family life is improving for all members, becoming more equal and democratic - joint conjugal roles. This is caused by:
1. Change in women’s position: 72% of women work - more independent and contribute to bills
2. Geographical mobility: can’t rely on extended family as much so couples must rely on each other
3. New technology and labour-saving devices: men get inolved more as tech has made it fun and easy
4. Higher standards of living: more women are working as they want more from life - more couples are dual earning families now
How can we analyse the symmetrical family?
AO3
- 2013 BSA Survey found a fall in number of people who think it’s the man’s job to earn money and the woman’s job to look after the home
- Doesn’t apply to all groups - south asian women, bengali women in particular have the lowest employment rate of all women and so are more likely to be strictly homemakers
How can we evaluate the symmetrical family?
AO3
Oakley repeated their study with unstrutured interviews rather than structured and found only 15% of men had a high level of participation in housework and only 25% in childcare and even then mostly the pleasurable aspects like playing
What is Crompton and Lyonette’s ideological explanation for segregated conjugal roles?
AO1 INCLUDES AO3 ANALYSIS
Division of labour is determined by patriarchal norms and values that shape the gender roles in our culture. Women perform more domestic labour as that is what society expects and has socialised them to do.
AO3
- Dunne: same-sex relationships are most equal as there are no gender scripts
- Weeks and Smart: same-sex relationships are most equal as they can negotiate roles
- Gershuny: segregated roles are based on socialisation - dual burden
What is Crompton and Lyonette’s material explanation?
AO1 INCLUDES AO3 ANALYSIS
Women are generally earn less than men which means it is economically rational for women to do more housework and childcare while men spend more time earning money.
AO3:
- Still a Gender Pay Gap
- Arber and Ginn: doesn’t apply to middle class women as they have economic capital to pay for domestic help thus making their conjugal roles more even
- Kan: for every £10k more a partner earns than the other, they do 2hrs less housework
- Sullivan: the amount a female works determines her household contributions (part time VS full time)
- Ramos: when the woman is the breadwinner and the man is unemployed the man does more domestic labour
What are power relationships?
The distribution of power and authority concerning how much control over decision making each partner has - who is able to get their own way and make decisions about important family matter
What are the 2 ways couples can manage money and what does it show about power relationships?
AO1
- Allowance System: when men give women an allowance out of which they’ve budgeted to meet family’s needs - this makes women financially dependent on men
- Pooling: both partners have access to income and have joint responsibility over expenditure e.g. joint bank accounts - more egalitarian as both partners have equal control over finances
How can we analyse the ways couples manage money?
AO3
- Bangladeshi women are more likely to be unemployed and so rely on an allowance from husband
- Pooling is becoming more common as neo-conventional dual earning family is on the rise
How do Personal Life Perspective evaluate what money management shows about power relationships?
AO3
Pooling does not mean a relationship is equal just as allowance doesn’t make a relationship oppressive:
- Pahl: pooling money doesn’t equal equality - we need to know who controls the money and whether each partner contributes equally
- Nyman: couples attach different meanings to money management - some may see handling finances as stressful and want their partner to do it - not an unfair power imbalance
- Dunne: in homosexual couples it does not matter who controls finances as there are no gender scripts
What sociologists suggest that women have less power in decision making?
AO1
- Pahl and Vogler: men usually make most important decisions e.g. where they live, kids school, holiday
- Hardhill: studied 30 dual carer couples and found that either the man alone or the couple together made decisions - the man is always involved
- Edgell: study of professional couples found that men made very important decisions e.g. changing jobs, moving house whilst women made less important decisions e.g. decor, meals, kids clothes, important decisions were made joint e.g. holidays
How can we analyse women having less power in decision making?
AO3
- Pahl and Volger are similar to Edgell
- Not as relevant to contemporary society due to decline in marriage and rise in cohabitation - cohabitating couples are more egalitarian (Volger et al)
- Power imbalances make women more likely to take on triple shift as they cannot negotiate roles
How can we evaluate women having less power in decision making?
AO3
Crompton and Lyonette: evidence of their ideological and material explanation:
- less important decisions are the ones concerned with female gender norms e.g. decor and meals
- more important decisions often concern finances - makes more sense for man to do it as he typically earns more
What is the Home Office definition for domestic abuse?
Any incident or pattern of incidents involving controlling, coercive of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over or who are or who have been intimate partners of family members regardless of gender or sexuality
How is the Women’s Aid Federation definition different?
- This includes psychological, physical, sexual, financial and emotional violence or abuse
- Includes issues concerning BME community like ‘honour killing’
What are some trends in domestic abuse and contemporary examples?
AO1/3
- There was a 65% increase in calls to the National Domestic Abuse Helpline during the first lockdown
- 84% of victims are female
- 93% of defendants are male
- 20% of children have lived in a house where an adult is commiting domestic violence
- The case of Casey Brittle whose boyfriend gradually became more and more abusive until he killed her in 2011
What are the problems with using statistics to research domestic violence?
AO3
- The dark figure of crime: many domestic abuse crimes are never reported/discovered
- Yearnshire: on average a woman suffers 35 assaults before making a report
- Cheal: police are reluctant to become involved as they see it is a private matter e.g. 11 reports had been made to the police regarding Casey Brittle before her death
What suggests positive changes are being made to deal with domestic abuse?
AO1
- Women’s refuges
- Victims are given priority in getting council housing
- Benefits
- 1991 Marital Rape Act
- Victims are given police protection e.g. restraining orders, new address is kept private
- Domestic Abuse Act 2021: post COVID victims of domestic abuse didn’t have to see their abuser in court. Also aided the financial definition of abuse e.g. withholding money
What is the radical feminist explanation for domestic abuse?
AO1
- Dobash and Dobash: violent incidents were caused by what the husband saw as a challenge to his authority. Marriage legitimises violence as husbands are given power over wives
- Pizzey: men use violence in order to control women and the issue is widely tolerated and not seen as a crime - this causes women being seen as property of men
- Ganley and Schechter: violence is used to maintain power
- Millet and Firestone: all societies are founded upon patriarchy where men are oppressors and exploiters of women - domestic violence is inevitable and universal
How can we analyse the radical feminist explanation?
AO3
- Brookman: the culture of masculinity values control over others so men resort to violence if they feel they’re losing control
- Casey Brittle - her boyfriend was controlling and isolated her from friends and family - beat her when she attempted to reject his authority
How can we evaluate the radical feminist explanation?
AO3
- Addresses widespread nature of domestic abuse
- Doesn’t explain female violence and child abuse by women or why domestic abuse still exists in lesbian couples
- Elliot: not all men benefit from violence against women - many are against it
What is the New Right Explanation for domestic abuse?
AO1
Family diversity is the cause:
- Violence results from instability caused by factors such as cohabitation and divorce and the decline in moral standarsd
How can we analyse the New Right explanation?
AO3
Beck and Giddens Individualisation Thesis: families are now more unstable as there is greater opportunity to leave - causes domestic abuse
How can we evaluate the New Right explanation?
AO3
Assumes that domestic violence does not occur within married nuclear families which is untrue
What is the materialist explanation for domestic abuse?
AO1
Wilkinson and Pickett: low income families and those in overcrowded accommodation are more likely to be stressed due to social inequality e.g. paying bills, housing, jobs. This leads to a high temper resulting in domestic abuse
How can we analyse the materialist explanation?
AO3
- Explains why domestic abuse rose during COVID - many were furloughed or lost their jobs increasing stress regarding finances
- Relevant today given current cost of living crisis
How can we evaluate the materialist explanation?
AO3
- Shows how social inequality can trigger violence - link to Marxist perspective of ‘safe haven’
- Justifies behaviour of violent individuals and ignores the impact on the victim
What is the late modernist explanation of domestic abuse?
AO3
Giddens: Emotional Intensity and Personal Intimacy:
- Modern couples are charged with strong emotions mixing hate and love
- This can lead to even minor disagreements resulting in violence
- Increasing isolation of nuclear families increases this intensity
How can we analyse the late modernist explanation?
AO3
Globalisation has made families become more isolated due to geographical mobility
How can we evaluate the late modernist explanation?
AO3
Doesn’t explain patterns in domestic abuse e.g. why it is more prevailent in some couples more than others and why victims are mainly women
What are some famous cases of child abuse?
AO2
- Victoria Climbe: 8 year old who died after months of abuse and neglect from aunt and her boyfriend
- Peter Connoly: 1 year old who died due to abuse from mum, her boyfriend, and his brother
What suggests that positive changes are being made to deal with child abuse?
AO1/3
- NSPCC have helped over 4mil children since 1986
- Cases like Victoria’s and Peter’s have led to the formation of MASH which allows institutions such as social services, police, schools, hospitals to share information about children who have been flagged as a cause for concern
- Every Child Matters formed after Victoria’s death - made all services that work with children obligated to ensure children are safe
