Domestic Division of Labour Flashcards
What is the domestic division of labour?
The role that men and women play in relation to housework, childcare and paid work- gender differences
What are domestic roles?
Who does the housework and looks after the children
What is power within relationships?
Who controls the money, who makes the decisions and who commits domestic violence
What is the instrumental role?
The mans role, the provider by going out to work and bringing in the money
What is the expressive role?
The woman’s caregiving role by looking after the children and doing the housework
What are segregated conjugal roles?
When men and women perform separate roles where the man will work and woman will stay at home and perform the housewife role
What are joint conjugal roles?
The partners will share their roles by sharing their responsibilities and performing household tasks equally
What does Both say about roles?
Traditional segregated conjugal roles and joint conjugal roles explained
What does Parsons believe about the domestic roles?
The roles are determined by biology and benefit both partners
Instrumental- achieve success to provide
Expressive- Primary socialisation and meeting the needs of the family
What is a criticism of roles?
Willmott and Young- Men taking on more domestic tasks and women in paid work
What are the 4 views of the family being more symmetrical?
Willmott and Young
Sullivan
British social attitudes
Future foundation
What are the 5 views of the family not becoming more symmetrical?
Oakley
Dex and Ward
Hohschild
Southerton
Parsons
What did Willmott and Young find in their study about the symmetrical family?
Men were breadwinners and spent leisure time with their workmates in the pub
Women were caregivers and had sole responsibility for housework and childcare and spent leisure time with female relatives
What do Willmott and Young say the symmetrical family involves?
The husband and the wife mirror each other
-Both partners in paid work
-Both have a role in domestic work and childcare
-Leisure time spent together rather than with workmates
What is a criticism of Willmott and Youngs study?
Oakley- rejects march of progress view
Who are more likely to have more symmetrical families?
Younger couples
What 4 reasons are there for young couples being more likely to have symmetrical families?
Changes in positions of women
Geographical mobility
New technology
Higher living standards
What did Sullivan find about the symmetrical family?
There was an increase in the number of couples with an equal division of labour and more men were performing traditional ‘women tasks’
What did the British Social Attitudes survey find about the symmetrical family?
There was a fall in the number of people who think its a mans job to earn money and the woman job to look after the home and family
Eg. ‘Who does laundry’ 1994=1% man, 2012=6%
What is a criticism of the British Social Attitudes Survey?
Feminists- views may have changed but there was little sign of the ‘new man’ as couples continue to divide household tasks along traditional gender lines
What did Future Foundations find about the symmetrical family?
Generational shift
60% of men claimed to do more housework than their father
75% of women claimed to do less than her mother
What does Oakley say about the symmetrical family?
The father role was seen as ‘taking an interest’ and engaged in the more pleasurable aspects if caring for children (‘taking them off their hands’)
Women lost pleasurable time with children and spent spare time on housework
What do Dex and Ward say about the symmetrical family?
Almost always the mother who was responsible for a Childs security and well being and fathers had high levels of involvement with their 3 year olds but not when it care for caring for their sick children
What does Hochschild say about the symmetrical family?
Women were required to perform emotion work meaning they manage the feelings of others and themselves Eg. arguments
What do Duncombe and Marsden say about the symmetrical family?
Men are performing a triple shift of paid work, housework and emotion work
What does Southerton say about the symmetrical family?
Flexible working patterns means that time is de-routinised meaning that quality time is difficult for women to achieve leisure time and have to have a dual burden and multitask
What is the cultural explanation for for the gender division of labour?
Ideological view of inequality that the division of labour is determined by patriarchal norms and values that shapes gender roles and socialises women into these roles
What is the material explanation for for the gender division of labour?
Women lower earnings means it id economically rational for women to do more housework and childcare while men earn money
What does Gershuny say about the cultural explanation for gender division?
Couples whose parents had a more equal relationship were likely to share housework more equally as they teach social values of a new norm of men to do housework
What are the 3 cultural explanations for gender division of labour?
Socialisation
Shift in social attitudes
Equality in society/ sexuality
What are the 3 material explanations for gender division of labour?
Changes in the position of women
High standard of living
New technology
What is the gradual shift of the norms of men doing housework called?
Lagged adaptation
What does the British Values Survey say about the cultural explanation for gender?
There has been a march of progress and changes in gender role socialisation and younger couples are I. favour of equal relationships
What did the British values Survey study find?
Less than 10% of under 35s agreed with traditional division of labour compared to 30% of over 65s
What does the Dunne say about the cultural explanation for gender?
Lesbian couples are more symmetrical as homosexual relationships are under pressure to conform to gender scripts which means they perform different domestic tasks that conform to gender identities
What is a criticism of the cultural explanation of gender division of labour?
More paid work for one partner meant more housework for the other
What does Man Ye Kan find about the material explanation for gender?
For every £10,000 a year more a woman earns they do two hours less of housework a week
What do Arber and Gin say about the material explanation for gender?
Greater equality depends on the social class women are in and MC women could afford childcare so can work and also afford time saving devices for domestic work
What do Silver and Schor say about the material explanation for gender?
Housework has become commercialised meaning the goods and services that housewives had to do is mass produced to reduce the amount of housework that had to be done and the burden of housework has decreased
What does Kempson say about resources?
Family members don’t share equally and in ow income families women would often go without to allow other family members to access resources and women had no entitlement to a share of household resources
What is an example of Kempsons findings about resources?
Women taking smaller portions or skipping meals
Who is the theorist who believes that money management is equal?
Pahl and Vogler
What does Paul and Voger believe the 2 types of control over family income is?
Allowance system
Pooling
What is the allowance system?
Where men give their wives an allowance which they have a budget to meet the family needs and the man keeps the rest for himself
What is pooling?
Both partners have access to income and joint responsibility for spending
Eg. joint bank account
(on the increase)
Who is the theorist who believes that money management is unequal?
Barrett an McIntosh
What do Barrett and McIntosh believe about money management?
Men gain far more from women’s domestic work than they give back in financial support which can be unpredicatble as men make important decisions about spending
Who is the theorist for decision making being equal?
Gershuny
What does Gershunyt say about decision making?
In 1995, 70% of couples said they had an equal say in decisions
Women who are high earning and well qualified professionals were more likely to have an equal say
Who are the 3 theorists for decision making being unequal?
Pahl and Vogler
Hardill
Edgell
What do Pahl and Voger say about decision making?
When the pooled income is controlled by the husband, men usually make the major finance decisions
What do Hardill find about decision making?
Important decisions usually taken by man alone or jointly and his career took priority when deciding whether to move house for a job
What do Edgell find about decision making?
Very important decisions about moving house were taken by the man alone or jointly but the man had the final say
Important decisions about education and holidays were taken jointly
Less important decisions about home decor or food would be made by the wife
What is the personal life perspective?
The meanings of money vary from couple to couple
Eg. one partner controlling finances may not be seen by either partner as inequality
What are try 3 sociological perspectives on money?
Personal life perspective
Smart
Weeks et al
What does Smart find about money?
Homosexual couples attached no importance to who controlled the money and were happy to leave this to their partners and it didnt mean inequality
Greater freedom is homosexual couples to negotiate roles
What did Weeks et al find about money?
Gay couples found a system of money management called co-independence and there were pooling for household spending but separate accounts for personal spending which left some independence
What is domestic violence?
Violence or coercive behaviour within the home involving the violent abuse of a spouse or partner
What is a pattern seen in domestic abuse?
By men against women
Stalking, Family abuse, Sexual assault
Two women a week killed by a partner
Incident when a woman questioned a mans authority
What are problems with official statistics on domestic abuse?
Often not reported
Often not punished
What do Radical feminists say about domestic abuse?
Millett- men are the enemies and use violence to dominate women
Dobash and Dobash- Men think they have the right to discipline their partners and there is not much institutional support for battered spouses
What is a criticism of the Radical feminist explanation of domestic violence?
Fail to explain female violence including child abuse and violence against male partners
Eg. Vanessa George who sexually abused children in nursery
What is the Materialist explanation of domestic abuse?
Abuse is a result of stress on family members caused by social inequality for example overcrowded housing leads to more conflict and means that they can’t maintain stable relationships
Who is the theorist for the materialist explanation on domestic abuse?
Wilkinson and Pickett
What is an example of the materialist explanation of domestic abuse?
Money, jobs and housing
Lack of money and time
What is a criticism of the materialist explanation of domestic violence?
Doesn’t explain why it is women rather than men who are at greatest risk of domestic violence
What do Marxist feminists say about domestic violence and the theorist?
Ansley- ‘takers of shit’
Violence is a product of capitalism as male workers are exploited at work and take out their frustration on their wives
What is a criticism of the Marxist feminist explanation of domestic violence?
Fails to explain why not all male workers commit acts of violence against their partners and it doesn’t account for cases of female domestic violence
