Families and Households - Couples

Question 1

Define ‘domestic division of labour’.

Answer 1

The roles men and women play in relation to housework, childcare, and paid work.

Question 2

Parsons (1955) and roles:

Answer 2

Men and women are naturally suited to different roles, biologically; this division also serves wider society.

Question 3

Parsons (1955) and the instrumental role:

Answer 3

Traditionally, the man will go out and provide for the household’s fiscal needs with work and not provide emotional or domestic support/

Question 4

Parsons (1955) and the expressive role:

Answer 4

Traditionally, the wife will stay home and take care of the children, providing for the family’s emotional needs and not the family’s fiscal needs.

Question 5

Give two criticisms of Parson’s (1955) functionalist perspective of the domestic division of labour.

Answer 5

• Young and Willmott (1962): men are now taking a greater share of domestic labour and women are becoming wage-earners
• Feminists: this only benefits men

Question 6

Bott (1957) and conjugal roles:

Answer 6

• Segregated conjugal roles: where the couples have separate roles like Parsons (1955)
• Joint conjugal roles: where the couples share tasks

Question 7

Young and Willmott (1957) and an investigation into conjugal roles:

Answer 7

• Study of traditional working-class extended families in Bethnal Green in the 1950’s.
• Men were the breadwinners, not involves in home life, and spent leisure time with workmates
• Women were housewives, solely involved in home life and spent little leisure time with female kin.

Question 8

What view do Young and Willmott (1973) take?

Answer 8

March of Progress: they see family life as long-term trending towards equality and becoming the ‘symmetrical family’.

Question 9

Define the ‘symmetrical family’

Answer 9

A family in which the roles of the husband and wife are not the same, but are similar.

Question 10

Who is the ‘symmetrical family’ more common among?

Answer 10

The young, those geographically and socially isolate, and the more affluent.

Question 11

What were the four factors that Young and Willmott (1973) believed promoted the ‘symmetrical family’?

Answer 11

• Changes in women’s positions
• Geographical mobility
• New technology and labour saving devices
• Higher standards of living.

Question 12

How did Oakley (1974) criticise Young and Willmott (1973)?

Answer 12

In their research, they found husbands ‘helped’ their wives once a week, but this could include small tasks like taking the kids for a walk or making breakfast once.

Question 13

Oakley (1974) and the role of husbands in childcare:

Answer 13

Men are more likely than previously to partake in childcare but only the pleasurable bits, causing the mothers to lose the rewarding part of childcare.

Question 14

Boulton (1983) and childcare:

Answer 14

Less than 20% of husbands have a major role in childcare.
- Even if the husband helps, the mother is considered responsible for the child’s well-being.

Question 15

Warde and Heatherington (1993) and sex-typing:

Answer 15

Wives are 30x more likely to have been the last to do the washing and the husbands 4x more likely to have washed the car last.

Question 16

“Are couples becoming more equal?” Give both sides of the debate.

Answer 16

• Women going out to work has created couples that are more equal
• Women now have to carry a ‘dual burden’ of paid and domestic labour.

Question 17

Sullivan (2000) and trends in domestic labour:

Answer 17

Between 1975, ‘87, and ‘97, women are doing less domestic labour and men more; additionally men are doing more traditionally feminine tasks.

Question 18

British Social Attitudes Survey (2013) and changes in attitudes to women working:

Answer 18

• 1984: 43% believe it is the man’s job to work
• 2012: 12%

Question 19

British Attitudes Survey (2013) and hours of housework and care:

Answer 19

Housework
- Men: 8
- Women: 13
Care for family
- Men: 10
- Women: 23

Question 20

Allan (1985) and satisfaction:

Answer 20

Women’s tasks, such as washing and cleaning, are less intrinsically satisfying and fulfilling than men’s tasks, such as repairing.

Question 21

Braun et al (2011) and the role of the father:

Answer 21

Most fathers are ‘background fathers’ where helping with the child is more about their relationship with the partner; many also had a ‘provider ideology’.

Question 22

Duncombe and Marsden (1995) and emotional burden:

Answer 22

Now that more women are going in to work, they have to work a ‘triple shift’ of domestic, emotional, and paid work.

Question 23

Southerton (2011) and family bonding time:

Answer 23

Mothers are more likely to be responsible for family bonding time, which has become more difficult in an age of flexible working patterns and 24/7 society.

Question 24

Southerton (2011) and leisure time:

Answer 24

Although quantitatively men and women have an equal amount of leisure time, men are more likely to have consolidated blocks, whereas women are more likely to have small spurts giving less rest and fulfillment.

Question 25

Give a conclusion to the question of whether couples are becoming more equal.

Answer 25

Although we are seeing some attitude and quantitative changes, on a more qualitative basis women and men remain unequal in relationships.

Question 26

What are Crompton and Lyonette’s (2008) 2 explanations for the unequal gender division of labour?

Answer 26

• The cultural or ideological explanation: patriarchal values and norms are socialized into men and women to perpetuate inequality
• The material or economic: women often earn less than men so it is rational that they do more domestic work

Question 27

Give 2 pieces of evidence to support the cultural explanation of the unequal gender division of labour.

Answer 27

• Kan (2001): men claim to do more housework than their fathers, and vice versa for women
• Dunne (1999): lesbian couples have greater equality as lack ‘gender scripts’

Question 28

Give 2 pieces of evidence to support the materialist explanation of the unequal gender division of labour.

Answer 28

• Kan (2001): for every £10,000 more a woman makes, she does 2 hours less housework per week
• Ramos (2003): where the woman is the bread-winner and the man unemployed, they will do an equal amount

Question 29

Pahl and Vogler (1993) and money management:

Answer 29

There are two systems of money management, with the latter on the rise:
- Allowance system: husband has control and gives a budget to meet the family’s needs
- Pooling: couple has equal access to income and joint responsibility to expenditure

Question 30

Pahl and Vogler (1993) and the downsides of pooling:

Answer 30

Even in pooling, men still make the major financial decisions

Question 31

Hardill (1997) and important decision making:

Answer 31

Even in dual-career professional couples, important decisions are usually made by the husband or jointly, his career also took precedence in housing decisions.

Question 32

Give evidence of a move towards greater equality in financial decision making.

Answer 32

Gershunny (2000): 70% of couples report equal say in decisions

Question 33

Vogler et al (1993) and cohabiting couples:

Answer 33

Cohabiting couples are more likely to keep their money seperately but more likely to divide labour equally; pooling money does not necessarily mean equality

Question 34

What is the ‘personal life’ perspective on control of money?

Answer 34

Given that pooling money or keeping it seperately do not equate to equality or inequality, we must take a closer look at how couples give meaning to money.

Question 35

Smart (2007) and control of money:

Answer 35

Gay couples were less likely to care about who had control of the money in the relationship, not seeing money as equalling equality or inequality

Question 36

Weeks et al (2001) and ‘co-independence’:

Answer 36

The most common pattern of money management is to pool for household spending and keep money for personal spending, this reflects a value of ‘co-independence’.

Question 37

Smart (2007) and ‘baggage’:

Answer 37

Same-sex couples are more likely to do what suits them for money control as they do not enter relationships with the same ‘historical gendered heterosexual baggage of cultural meanings around money.’

Question 38

Give types of domestic violence or abuse:

Answer 38

• Physical
• Emotional
• Financial
• Sexual
• Psychological

Question 39

Give evidence that domestic violence is not the ‘behaviour of a few’, as many claim.

Answer 39

The crime survey for England and Wales (2013): 2 million people reported being victims of domestic violence in 2012
- Dark figure of crime

Question 40

Give evidence that domestic violence is not random.

Answer 40

It follows social patterns with causes, such as men being more likely to be the abuse.
- Coleman et al (2010): women are more likely than men to have experienced intimate violence across all 4 types of abuse.

Question 41

Dobash and Dobash (1979) and the immediate cause of domestic violence:

Answer 41

Violent incidents by abusive partners are more likely to be set off by a percieved challenge to that partner’s authority.

Question 42

Give evidence that the gender gap in abuse is narrowing.

Answer 42

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (2013): 7.3% and 5% of women and men reported having experienced abuse in the previous year.

Question 43

What does number of reports of domestic violence not tell us?

Answer 43

Severity, frequency and effects.

Question 44

Dar (2013) and the number of reports of domestic violence:

Answer 44

It can be difficult to count seperate incidents as abuse is often continuous or incredibly frequent.

Question 45

Walby and Allen (2004) and number of incidents:

Answer 45

Women are more likely than men to be victims of multiple incidents of abuse.

Question 46

What are the two reasons, and evidence, for why we cannot trust official statistics on domestic violence?

Answer 46

Unwillingness to report
- Yearnshire (1997): a woman suffers 35 assaults before reporting
Unwillingness to record or investigate
- Cheal (1991): The state is often unwilling to get involved with ‘private’ family life

Question 47

Give evidence that the police fail to prosecute domestic violence.

Answer 47

Between 2006-11, 6.5% of reported cases were prosecuted

Question 48

What are the two explanations of domestic violence?

Answer 48

• The radical feminist
• The material

Question 49

Give the radical feminist explanation of domestic violence.

Answer 49

Domestic violence is essential to a patriarchal society’s ability to dominate it’s women and keep them in subservience, further undermining the misogyny of men who “aren’t that bad”

Question 50

How does male domestic violence criticise the radical feminist explanation of domestic violence.

Answer 50

Men can be and are often also the victims of domestic violence, which they fail to be able to explain.
- 18% of men have experienced have expereinced domestic violence since the age of 16

Question 51

How does the radical feminist explanation of domestic violence fail to explain variation in victimhood between women?

Answer 51

The RFEoDV can explain why women are more likely to be the victims of DV, but not why some more than others.
- ONS (2014): younger, poorer, disabled or with long term illness, alcoholic, and/or addicted women are more likely to experience DV

Question 52

Give the materialist explanation of domestic violence.

Answer 52

Wilson and Pickett (2010) see DV as the reult of stress caused by social inequality; families experiencing poverty or overcrowded accomodation will be less able to maintain stable caring relationships.

Question 53

Give an evaluation of the materialist explanation of domestic violence.

Answer 53

It fails to explain why more women are the victims of domestic violence than men.

Question 54

How do marxist feminists merge the explanations for domestic violence?

Answer 54

Ansley (1972) sees women as ‘the takers of shit’ and that they recieve the frustrations men have at the capitalist system in the form of violence.