Families And Households: Couples

Question 1

Define the expressive role

Answer 1

The females maintain the role of the caregiver and homemaker giving emotional support to the males and children

Question 2

Define the instrumental role

Answer 2

The males are the wage earner/breadwinner. Deal with the financial side to the family.

Question 3

Outline two criticisms that feminists would have of Parson’s views about domestic division of labour

Answer 3

Enforces the idea that women should be oppressed and it emphasises a patriarchal society.

Question 4

Bott (1957)

Answer 4

Distinguishes between two types of conjugal role relationships in which each partner has a specific set of mutually agreed and integrated tasks to perforn.

Question 5

Define segregated conjugal roles

Answer 5

Where men and women have a clear differentiation of tasks and a number of seperate interests and activities

Question 6

Define joint conjugal roles

Answer 6

Where the couple carry out many tasks together with a minimum task differentiation and seperation of interests.

Question 7

Wilmott and Young (1973)

Answer 7

Assumes that there has been a move from segregated to integrated conjugal roles in relationships. 
Emergence of the symmetrical family:
1) Men help with housework and childcare
2) Couples spend leisure time together
3) Women go out to work

Question 8

List 4 factors that have contributed to the increase in symmetrical families

Answer 8

Changes in the position of women
New technologies
Geographical Mobility
Higher standards of living

Question 9

How has changes in the position of women increased the symmetrical families?

Answer 9

Married women now go to work rather than stay at home and look after the children. Fewer children also means more quality time can be spent together.

Question 10

How has new technologies increased the symmetrical families?

Answer 10

Development of new technologies are making housework less time-consuming leaving more time to be spent on pursuing interests and leisure activities.

Question 11

How has Geographical Mobility increased the symmetrical families?

Answer 11

More couples are living away from the communities where they grew up so are more reliant on each other for help and support with daily activities.

Question 12

How has higher standards of living increased the symmetrical families?

Answer 12

Having higher household incomes means that couples can afford to spend less time on housework and more leisure time together.

Question 13

Oakley (1974)

Answer 13

Challenges the symmetrical family. Critical of Wilmott and Young’s methodological shortcomings suggesting that their empirical evidence is unconvincing because it was based on only one question and excludes younger women who are more likely to have young children who are more time-consuming.

Question 14

What did Oakley’s research find?

Answer 14

15% of husbands had a high level of participation in housework and only 25% participated in childcare. She acknowledged that more men were taking part in housework but did not take this as evidence of a trend towards symmetry. She argues that DDL is still seen as the females’ responsibility.

Question 15

Define Dual Burden

Answer 15

Women has to balance between paid and unpaid work. Men do same amount of housework whether they are employed or unemployed, resisting to take on feminine domestic roles (Morris 1990).

Question 16

Duncombe and Marsden (1993) Triple Shift

Answer 16

Conducted a study of 40 white couples in one area and found that:

1) Women make the emotional effort whilst men devalue it.
2) Men prioritise work and fail to take emotional responsibility at home.
3) Men wanted the picture of marriage and domesticity but did not want to put in the emotional involvement.

Question 17

Gershuny (1992) Lagged Adaptation

Answer 17

Found a gradual increase in the amount of domestic labour performed by men, particularly when women are in paid employment. Lagged adaptation is a time lag between women taking up paid employment and men making a greater contribution to domestic labour.

Question 18

Golann (2013)

Answer 18

Unemployed men resist increased involvement in housework because they interpret it as unmasculine, hindering their focus on regaining their roles as the breadwinner by seeking employment.

Question 19

Sclater (2000)

Answer 19

Argues that household technologies such as washing machines and vacuum cleaners advertised as making life easier for women have actually increased the burden of household chores because they have raised household standards of cleanliness therefore increasing the time spent on housework.

Question 20

Identify two ways in which the commercialisation of housework has led to reduction in time spent on housework.

Answer 20

Technologies like washing machines and microwaves make housework quicker.

Question 21

Identify two ways in which the commercialisation of housework has led to increase in time spent on housework.

Answer 21

Standards of cleanliness have increased.
Working class women may not be able to afford household technologies.

Question 22

Green (1996)

Answer 22

Wives usually interpret leisure time as the time free from both paid work and family commitments whereas husbands saw all the time outside paid work as their leisure time.

Question 23

What would feminists say about the burden of modern families?

Answer 23

The burden has alleviated as a result of technologies however they may go to work and then come back to domestic chores so they still have to do more work.

Question 24

Burghes (1997)

Answer 24

Fathers are taken an increasing role in the emotional development of their children however is it important not to exaggerate men’s role in childcare as it is still largely seen as the female role.

Question 25

Beck (1992)

Answer 25

In a postmodern age fathers can no longer rely on their jobs to provide a sense of identity and fulfilment. Increasingly, they look to their children to give them a sense of identity and purpose.

Question 26

Cultural/Ideological explanation

Answer 26

The division of labour is based on the patriarchal norms and values that are reinforced within society, through socialisation processes and the gender roles that are dictated to use.

Question 27

Gershuny (1994)

Answer 27

Social values are gradually adapting to the fact that women are working full-time so men doing more domestic work is becoming a new norm.

Question 28

Man Yee Kan (2001)

Answer 28

Most men do more housework than their fathers and most women do less housework than their mothers showing changes in norms and values with generations.

Question 29

The British Social Attitudes Survey (2013)

Answer 29

Less than 10% of younger people agree with traditional division of labour compared to 30% of older people which shows long term change in norms as younger people are in favour of more equal relationships.

Question 30

Material/Economic explanation

Answer 30

Since women earn less than men, it is more economically rational for men to go out to work and earn, whilst the woman stays at home to care for the children and maintain household chores.

Question 31

Man Yee Kan (2001)

Answer 31

Found that for every 10k a year more a woman earns ,she spends two hours less of housework per week.

Question 32

Arber and Ginn (1995)

Answer 32

Better paid women are more able to buy commercial product and services rather than having to spend time on domestic tasks.

Question 33

Ramos (2003)

Answer 33

Found that in households where the woman is the breadwinners and the man unemployed, they spend equal time on domestic tasks.

Question 34

Dunne (1997)

Answer 34

Compared to heterosexual women, lesbian couples were more likely to describe their relationship as equal, sharing housework and childcare equally and give equal importance to both partners’ careers. Dunne argues that this is because heterosexual people are under pressure to conform to deeply ingrained masculine or feminine gender scripts by performing different kinds of domestic tasks that confirm their gender identities.

Question 35

Dunne (1997) Evaluation

Answer 35

Supports feminists views about the gender inequality in the DDL.
She claims that heterosexual relationships are inevitably patriarchal because couples conform to gender stereotypes of masculine and feminine roles so their contribution to DL is gender scripted whereas lesbian couples roles are not scripted so are more open to negotiation.
The proportion of housework tends to relate to the proportion of paid hours a partner works which creates inequality even amongst the same-sex couples.

Question 36

Barret and Mcintosh (1991)

Answer 36

Found that men gain far more from women’s domestic work than they give back in financial support. Financial support given by husbands to their wives is often unpredictable and come with strings attached.

Question 37

Define pooling system

Answer 37

Husband and wife share income and have joint bank account.

Question 38

Define allowance system

Answer 38

Husband gives his wife a small proportion of his income on a regular basis to meet the family’s needs.

Question 39

Edgell (1980)

Answer 39

Very important decisions made by the husband who brought in the main source of income.
Important decisions are usually jointly decided by both partners as they affected everyone in the family.
Less important decisions are usually made by the wife such as the food the family would eat and clothes they would buy.

Question 40

Weeks et al. (2001)

Answer 40

Found that a lot of cohabiting couples pooled some income for household spending whilst keeping the rest of their individual income for personal spending. This is known as co-independence a similar pattern of couples’ money management found by Vogler et al.

Question 41

Smart (2007)

Answer 41

In some same sex couples, partners did not attach any importance to who controlled the finances and were happy to leave this to their partners. They did not consider this as the basis of inequality in their relationship. There was greater freedom for same sex couples to manage their money effectively as they do not enter relationships with the gendered, heterosexual and cultural meaning which considers money as source of power.

Question 42

Radical feminist explanation of domestic violence

Answer 42

Emphasises the role of patriarchal ideas, cultural values and institutions.
Widespread domestic violence is an inevitable feature of patriarchal society and serves to preserve power that all men have over women.
Male dominations of institutions explains reluctance of police and courts to deal effectively with cases of domestic violence.

Question 43

Evaluation of feminist explanation of domestic violence

Answer 43

Elliot rejects radical view saying that not all men are aggressive and most are opposed to domestic violence. Fails to explain female violence. Wrongly assumes that all women are at risk of patriarchal violence. Fails to explain which women are most likely to be victims.

Question 44

Marxist feminist explanation of domestic violence

Answer 44

Ansley argues that domestic violence is the product of capitalism. Male workers are exploited and they take their frustration out on their wives.

Question 45

Evaluation of Marxist explanation of domestic violence

Answer 45

Explains why domestic violence is male violence against females.
Fails to explain why not all males commit acts of violence and doesn’t account for female domestic violence cases.

Question 46

Materialistic perspective explanation of domestic violence

Answer 46

Emphasises economic factors such as lack of resources.
Those on low incomes means more stress and reduces chance of maintaining stable, caring relationships and increases the risk of conflict and violence.

Question 47

Evaluation of Materialistic Perspective of domestic violence

Answer 47

Useful in showing how social inequality produces stress and triggers conflict and violence in families.
Does not explain why women rather than men are the main victims.