Domestic Labour, Power Relationships & The Family Flashcards
What is a SYMMETRICAL family?
(Willmott & Young)
families where the roles of men and women were as important as each other, they’re balanced & equal
What is MALESTREAM sociology?
(Anne Oakley)
The idea that male sociologists dominate research and often deny what is ‘worthy of study’
What is Parsons’ (Functionalist) view of the division of labour & power dynamic within the family?
- distribution of labour stabilises society because the nuclear family unit gives men & women clear & distinct social roles
- husband: economic welfare & protection
- wife: emotional care & primary socialisation - He said that the power relationship was equally balanced but the roles were different
How does Willmott & Young (Functionalists) “March of Progress” theory link to the power dynamic?
- carried out studies in East End of LDN during the 50s
- theories that conjugal roles & domestic labour was clearly segregated
- however, by the 70s their studies suggested that marriage dynamics had undergone a transformation
- relationships were more likely to be symmetrical
- greater educational & job opportunities
- women started going out to work in greater no.s
- women acquired more pwr in a variety of ways - they concluded that these changes resulted in a new family form
- The Symmetrical Family (a type of n unit)
- egalitarian conjugal roles
What is the FEMINIST response to many functionalist thinkers in the 70s?
Anne Oakley (1974)
- first to point out that many sociologists ignored domestic work (example of malestream sociology)
- argued that the patriarchy was still a major part of modern n families & women still in a subordinate/dependant role within family & wider society
Ben-Galim & Thompson (2013)
* found 8/10 married women carried out more household chores than men
What are the findings of various studies of men and childcare?
Fisher et al. (1999)
* argued that British father care of infants & young children has increased by 800% 1975-97
(from 15 mins on av working day to 2hr)
Smith (2009)
* found fathers in n families carry out 25% of the families childcare related activities during working days
Maume (2008)
* in families w/ a working mother, more than 1 in 4 fathers took emergency time off to take care of a sick child
What are the issues with studied on men and childcare?
- findings are inconsistent
- sociologists need to be cautious in how they interpret data
- it often says little about the father-child relationships
What did Stephen Edgell find about decision making in his 1980 study?
Decision making in the nuclear family could be allocated to 3 broad categories:
- VERY IMPORTANT DECISIONS
husband would have the final say, this power serviced from superior earning power (financial, housing, jobs) - IMPORTANT DECISIONS
normally jointly taken but rarely taken by the wife alone (quality of family life, schooling) - LESS IMPORTANT DECISIONS
made exclusively by the wife (food, domestic items)
What changes did Hardill et al. (1997) find when repeating Edgell’s study a decade later?
- MC wives generally deferred to their husbands in major decisions
- Men were able to demand that interest of wife & family were subordinate to his career
^ Leighton (1992) found this change was because of male unemployment
However, Vogler & Paul (2001) found decision making was still shaped by income
What do Duncombe & Marsden (1995) contend about emotion work?
- When measuring equality in households, emotion work must be taken into account
- emotion work includes:
- sustaining father-child relationships
- hugging family members & reassuring them w/
love
- smoothing over arguments in the family - argues because of this work, women work a TRIPLE SHIFT: paid work, housework, childcare… neglect of women’s wellbeing
What do FEMINISTS thinkers argue about emotional work?
- Feminists point out that family members benefit from women’s emotional work, except women themselves
Hochschild (2003)
- women rarely thanked as it’s seen as part of their gendered duty
- if men provide childcare it’s seen as a gift to the woman, whereas when the mum does it it’s her ‘job’
What did Loscocco & Walzer (2013) find about contemporary marriage?
- women often express unhappiness & see problems in their marriage more than men do
- women more likely to initiate divorce
- once-married men are more likely to say that they want to marry again than once-married women
What did Dunne (1999) find about lesbian couples & gender scripts?
- blames ‘gender scripts’ for today’s inequality of domestic labour distribution
- found in lesbian couples with dependant children, gender scripts did not operate at the same extent regarding the division of labour
- evidence of egalitarianism in lesbian couples (equal importance for careers & childcare)
However, Dunne found that if one partner earned more than the other the division of labour was more unequal
According to Dunne, what are ‘gender scripts’?
- the traditional social expectations/norms set out by the conjugal roles often played in heterosexual couples
- familial & patriarchal ideology
How did Carrington (1999) confirm Dunne’s point on paid work?
- carried out an ethnographic study of gay & lesbian couples
- found that there was tension in relationships (with unequal incomes) about inequalities in the distribution of domestic work
- these were no different from straight couples
- Carrington remained unconvinced homosexual couples were examples of egalitarian relationships heterosexuals should aspire to
