Domestic division of labour

Question 0

What does parsons say the gender roles in a marriage are?

Answer 0

Instrumental- men

Expressive - women

Question 1

What is the domestic division of labour?

Answer 1

Roles men and women play in a marriage.

Question 2

According to Parsons, gender division of labour is functional for…?

Answer 2

The family
Its members
Society

Question 3

Why does Parsons think men and women are suited to segregated conjugal roles?

Answer 3

Biology

Question 4

What do the new right think the best way of life is for couples?

Answer 4

Gender division
Men - instrumental
Women - expressive

Question 5

The March of progress view sees roles in society as..?

Answer 5

Becoming more equal

Question 6

Which two types of conjugal roles does Bott identify?

Answer 6

Segregated conjugal roles

Joint conjugal roles

Question 7

Why are joint conjugal roles?

Answer 7

Involves couples sharing domestic tasks and leisure

Question 8

What are segregated conjugal roles?

Answer 8

A sharp division of labour between the male breadwinner and female nurturer. Leisure time is also shared separately

Question 9

Willmott and Young found segregated conjugal roles in which type of family in the 1950’s?

Answer 9

Working class extended

Question 10

What do Willmott and Young see a trend toward?

Answer 10

The symmetrical family and joint conjugal roles

Question 11

What is the symmetrical family?

Answer 11

a family where roles are more similar and equal
Most women go out to work
Men help with housework and childcare
Couples spend leisure time together
Men have become more home centred and families more privatised

Question 12

Reasons for the rise in symmetrical families?

Answer 12

Major social changes in the 20th century, eg;
Higher standard of living 
Labour saving devices 
Better housing 
Women working
Smaller families

Question 13

Who rejects the March of progress view ?

Answer 13

Feminists

Question 14

Feminists see the family as…?

Answer 14

Patriarchal, not equal and not symmetrical

Question 15

Key feminist thinker ……. Argues that housewife has become the primary role for women. Why?

Answer 15

Ann Oakley
Due to industrialisation and factory production in the 19th century which led to the separation of paid work from the home

Question 16

According to ….Why did industrialisation and factory production lead to a separation of paid work from the home?

Answer 16

Ann Oakley argues

• women were excluded from the work force an confined to the home. Men became the sole breadwinners leading to women’s economic dependence
• the housewife role is socially constructed and not natural

Question 17

Ann Oakley found statistics about husbands percentage of housework and child care, what were they?

Answer 17

15% high level of housework

25% high level of childcare

Question 18

She found evidence of more husbands help in the homes but not evidence of…?

Answer 18

The symmetrical family

Question 19

What does patriarchal society mean?

Answer 19

A male dominant society where women are unequal

Question 20

What does Boulton argue when talking about domestic division of labour?

Answer 20

We should look at who is responsible for tasks not just who performs them, the wife is responsible for child care even where men may help. Less than 1 in 5 men took a major part in child care.

Question 21

Explain what Gershuny meant by ‘lagged adaption’?

Answer 21

Gershuny found that men who’s wives worked full time did more domestic work (although still only 27%). This is a result of change in values and role models or lagged adaption; couples are gradually adapting to women working full time.
However domestic tasks are still gender scripted.

Question 22

What is meant by the commercialisation of housework?

Answer 22

Men and women can now by good and services (ready meals, nurseries etc) which cuts the amount of domestic labour needed.

Question 23

What does Schor argue the commercialisation of housework has led to?

Answer 23

The “death of the housewife role” however this only applies for the better off.

Question 24

According to feminists, what is the dual burden?

Answer 24

Women in paid work has not led to equality but the dual burden of women now taking on housework and paid work

Question 25

What were Ferri and Smiths findings during their study of couples?

Answer 25

They found that women working has has had little impact on the domestic division of labour - under 4% of fathers were the main child career.

Question 26

What did Morris find during his study of couples?

Answer 26

Even where the wife was working and the husband unemployed, she still did most of the housework. The men suffered a crisis of masculinity having lost their breadwinner role.

Question 27

What is the crisis of masculinity?

Answer 27

According to Morris, it is where men loose their role as main breadwinner and they resist taking on feminine roles.

Question 28

Whose theory is and what is the triple shift?

Answer 28

Duncombe and Marsden 1995

Found women were not only required to carry a dual burden but a triple shift; emotions, paid work and domestic work.

Question 29

What is the radical feminist view in heterosexual relationships?

Answer 29

They are inevitably patriarchal and unequal, even with women in paid work.

Question 30

Whose study of 37 lesbian couples with children found a more equal domestic division of labour?

Answer 30

Dunne’s

Question 31

According to Dunne’s study heterosexual households…?

Answer 31

We’re socialised into gender scripts that set out different masculine and feminine roles and gender scripts.

Question 32

According to Dunne’s study lesbian households…?

Answer 32

Did not link household tasks to gender scripts so they were more open to negotiation and thus more equal.

Question 33

Why does Dunne argue she got the results she did?

Answer 33

Lesbian and heterosexual couples interact in different ways. Heterosexuals are under pressure to conform to masculine or feminine gender scripts my perform different kinds of domestic tasks that conform to their gender identities.

Question 34

What view does Dunne’s study support?

Answer 34

Radical feminist

Question 35

Who also argues that same sex relationships offer greater possibilities of equality?

Answer 35

Jeffrey Weeks

Question 36

What has a high impact accepting to Dunne, on the domestic division of labour?

Answer 36

Paid work

Question 37

Barrett and McIntosh note that..?

Answer 37

• Men gain far more out of women’s domestic work that they give back in financial support
• The financial support given Is often unpredictable with strings attached
• Men usual make the decisions about spending money on important things

Question 38

What did Kempson find?

Answer 38

Women in low income families denied their own needs, seldom going out and eating smaller portions of food to make ends meet. Even in houses with adequate incomes, resources where shared unequally leaving many women living in poverty.

Question 39

Why do mean take a greater share of resources and often get the final say in decisions? And who supports this idea?

Answer 39

They often earn more

Vogler and Pahl

Question 40

Which two types of control over family income did Pahl and Vogler identify?

Answer 40

The allowance system

Pooling

Question 41

What did Vogler’s study show?

Answer 41

She found a large increase in pooling. In her study of 1,211 couples with their parents pooling has risen from 19% to 50% and the allowance system has decreased from 36% to 12%

Question 42

What did Stephan Edgell’s study of professions reveal?

Answer 42

V important decisions - made my husband or jointly with husband having final say
Important decisions - jointly or just wife
Less important decisions - wife