Domestic Division Of Labour

Question 1

Willmott and Young (support)

Answer 1

• ‘march of progress view’
• more equal and democratic
• long-term trend away from segregated conjugal roles
• men were breadwinners
• women are caregivers and had sole responsibility for housework and childcare
• In 1973 Willmott and Young identified a trend towards joint conjugal roles and the symmetrical family, e.g. both partners involved in paid work

Question 2

Sullivan (2000) - supports

Answer 2

• data collected over a 25-year period found a trend towards greater equality
• In 1975 82% of husbands worked full time with their unemployed wife compared to 73% in 1997
• men did ‘bigger’ tasks like house repairs or mowing the lawn
• women did more frequent, ‘smaller’ tasks like regular house cleaning and cooking

Question 3

British Social Attitudes Survey (2013) - supports

Answer 3

• found a fall in the number of people who think it’s a man’s job to earn money and the woman’s job to look after the home and family
• ‘who does the laundry’ in 1994 only 1% said the man always/usually did compared to 6% in 2012

Question 4

British Social Attitudes Survey (support) - AO3

Answer 4

• feminists argue there is still little sign of the ‘new man’s as couples continue to divide household tasks along traditional gender lines

Question 5

British Social Attitudes Survey - Changes in attitudes(support) - AO3

Answer 5

• feminists argue there is still little sign of the ‘new man’s as couples continue to divide household tasks along traditional gender lines

Question 6

Future Foundations - generational shift (supports)

Answer 6

• study of 1,000 adults found that 60% of men claimed to do more housework than their father and 75% of women claimed to do less than her mother

Question 7

Oakley: feminist view of housework (against)

Answer 7

• society is male dominated and this is the root of the unequal division of labour
• father’s role was seen as ‘taking an interest’ where men would engage in more pleasurable aspects of caring for children or would ‘take them off her hands’
• women lost pleasurable time with children and used their spare time on housework

Question 8

Dex and Ward (2007): childcare (against)

Answer 8

• Dex and Ward supports Bouton’s earlier study in 1983 where she found it was almost always the mother who was responsible for a child’s security and well being
• when caring for a sick child, only 1% of fathers took the main responsibility

Question 9

Hochschild - 2013(against)

Answer 9

• women are required to perform emotion work, managing the feelings of others and themselves
• Duncombe and Marsden argue this means women are performing a triple shift of paid work, housework and emotional work

Question 10

Hochschild - 2013(against)

Answer 10

• women are required to perform emotion work, managing the feelings of others and themselves
• Duncombe and Marsden argue this means women are performing a triple shift of paid work, housework and emotional work

Question 11

Southerton (2011) - against

Answer 11

• men are more likely to experience blocks of uninterrupted leisure
• quality time is especially difficult for women to achieve
• women are carrying a dual burden

Question 12

Cultural Explanation - Gershuny - Socialisation(1994)

Answer 12

• couples whose parents had a more equal relationship were likely to share housework more equally
• parental role models are important
• social values are gradually adapting to women working full-time, establishing a new norm for men to do housework
• gradual shift termed ‘lagged adaption’

Question 13

Cultural deprivation - British Attitudes Survey- Shift in social attitudes (2013)

Answer 13

• found that less than 10% of under 35s agreed with a traditional division of labour compared to 30% of over 65s
• suggest a cultural march of progress and changes in gender role socialisation

Question 14

Cultural deprivation - Dunne(1999)

Answer 14

• found lesbian couples are more symmetrical
• heterosexuals are under pressure to conform to these scripts
• lesbian relationships aren’t linked to a particular gender scripts

Question 15

Cultural deprivation - Dunne(1999) Equality in society/sexuality

Answer 15

• found lesbian couples are more symmetrical
• heterosexuals are under pressure to conform to these scripts
• lesbian relationships aren’t linked to a particular gender scripts

Question 16

Material deprivation - Man Ye Kan(2001) -CPOW

Answer 16

• found that for every £10,000 a year more a women earns, she does two hours less housework per week

Question 17

Material Deprivation - Arber and Gin (1995) High Standards of living

Answer 17

• greater equality depends on the social class position women are in
• found that middle class women were able to afford full-day childcare when they went out to work and help with domestic work like time saving devices and domestic help
• working class women stick in cycle of childcare responsibilities and low paid, part time work

Question 18

Material deprivation - Silver and Schor (New Technology)

Answer 18

• housework has become ‘commercialised’
• good and serviced mass produced and supplied by supermarket etc
• freezers, microwave ovens, ‘ready meals’ all reduce the amount of domestic labour to be done
• working women can afford these services and the burden of housework has decreased