Domestic Division of Labour Flashcards
what is domestic labour?
work conducted by people as members of a household.
give some examples of domestic labour?
cooking, cleaning, DIY, financial work, decisions, paid work, invisible(behind the scenes) work.
what are the two sides of the debate for the division of domestic labour?
1- the domestic division of labour is unequal, and it is female dominated.
2-the domestic division of labour is becoming more equal
what were some expectations about women in the 1950s?
- keep home clean and peaceful for man
- look good for husband
- don’t disagree with husband, everything for the wellbeing of the man
what has happened to expectation of women from 1950s until now?
- changed
- gender roles are no longer a necessity/expectation, but a ‘choice’.
why have gender roles changed
- SOCIAL POLICIES, equal pay, sex discrimination, women able to work and gain money
- societal attitudes, ‘march of progress’, less patriarchal attitudes, child-centred with both parents
- technology, made housework easier, leisure time, family time
- changing position of women, more aspirations, career driven, has to work for both genders, invisible work
what did YOUNG and WILLMOTT say about the similar roles between men and women now?
the family is now a SYMMETRICAL FAMILY
what did the study find that supports YOUNG AND WILLMOTT? plus the support
-72% of men did more in the house than ever before
-compared to 1950s, where they did none
SUPPORT= fisher 1999, between 1970-90s, fathers care of children rose by 800% (15mins-2hrs)
what do feminists think about the symmetrical family?
- highly disagree, patriarchal view of labour
- change hasn’t gone far enough, march of progress
what did Anne Oakley say about the symmetrical family?
‘the modern man is a myth.’
-family is exaggerated, man only has to do one household task/week to be classed as symmetrical
Anne Oakley said ‘one household task is not a caring, sharing husband.’ what study supports this?
- 40 women, unstructured, with detail
- 15%, 6/40, of husband had a high level of participation in housework
- majority are still not participating at a high level, mainly women-
what evidence supports the fact that women still do more housework than men? The evidence is from ONS.
- stereotypical roles, men do 18hrs of DIY/week, where women do 5hrs.
- women do more than half more cooking and washing up than men, women=75, men=35
- on average, women do more than men, on top of paid work, women=205hrs/week, men= 125hrs/week
What did the BBC chore wars find?
what was the support for this ?
- men are participating, but women are doing a higher quantity of tasks during that time.
- men=1, women=10
- supported by the fact that there is constant conflict, not equality, 2/3 argue over how little male did
- ‘male standards of cleanliness.’ —> women redo tasks.
what did PLECK do and find?
- one household, diary entries
- male estimation of time spent with children= 11.7 hours a week
- actual hours spent= 1.3 hours a week (overestimation)
