Families And Households - Couples (topic 1)

Question 1

What is Parsons argument on instrumental and expressive roles?

Answer 1

• The husband has an instrumental role, geared towards achieving success at work so the he can provide for the family financially. He is the breadwinner.
• The wife has an expressive role, geared towards primary socialisation of the children and meeting the family’s emotional needs. She is the house make, a full time housewife rather than a wage earner.
  Parsons argues that this division of labour is based on biological difference, with women naturally suited to the nurturing role and men to that of provider. He claims that this division of labour is beneficial to both men and women, to their children and to wider society. Some conservative thinkers and politicians, known as the New Right, also hold this view.

Question 2

What are some criticisms for Parsons view?

Answer 2

• Young and Willmott argue that men are now taking a greater share of domestic tasks and more wives are becoming wage earners.
• Feminists sociologist reject Parsons view that the division of labour is natural. In addition, they argue that it only benefits men.

Question 3

What is Young and Willmott arguments with joint and segregated roles?

Answer 3

• Segregated conjugal roles, where the couple have separated roles : a male breadwinner and a female homemaker/carer, as in Parsons instrumental and expressive roles.
• Joint conjugal roles, where the couples share tasks such as housework and childcare and spend their leisure time together.
  Young and Willmott identified a pattern of segregated conjugal roles in their study of traditional working class extended families in Bethnal Green, east London, in the 1950s. Men were the breadwinners. They played little part in home life and spent their leisure time with workmates in pubs and working men’s club. Women were full-time housewives with sole responsibility for housework and childcare helped by their female relatives. The limited leisure women had was also spent with female kin.

Question 4

What is Young and Willmott argument for the march of progress view on symmetrical family?

Answer 4

Young and Willmott both have a march of progress view where they argue that segregated conjugal roles are being less favoured in our modern society and that most people are going towards joint conjugal roles.
- Women are now going out for work, some are full time but most are part time workers.
- Men now help with housework and childcare.
- Couples now spend their leisure time together instead of separately with workmates or female relatives.
In Young and Willmott study they found that the symmetrical family was more common in younger couples, those who are geographically and socially isolated, and the make affluent. Young and Willmott see the rise of symmetrical nuclear family as the result of major social changes that have taken place during the century:
- changes in women’s positions, including married women going out to work.
- geographical mobility - more couples live away from the communities in which they grew up.
- new technology and labour saving devices.
- higher standards of living.
Many of these factors inter-link for example, married women bringing a second wage into the home raises the families standards of living. This means couples can afford more labour-saving devices. This makes housework easier and encourages men to do more.

Question 5

Why do feminist reject the march of progresses view?

Answer 5

They argue that little has changed : men and women remain unequal within the family and women still do most of the housework along with working. They see this inequality as stemming from the fact that family and society are male-dominated or patriarchal. Women occupy a subordinate and dependant role within the family and wider society.

Question 6

What is Oakley’s arguments on a feminist view of housework?

Answer 6

She criticises Young and Willmott view that the family is now symmetrical. She argues that their claims are exaggerated. Although Young and Willmott found that most of the husbands they interviewed helped their wives at least once a week, this could include simply taking the children for a walk or making breakfast on one occasion. Only 15% of husbands had a high level of participation in housework, and only 25% had a high level of participation in childcare. Husbands were more likely to share in childcare than in housework, but only its more pleasurable aspects, which was playing with them leading to women been robbed of any rewards of childcare as they were the simply left to continue chores.

Question 7

What is Boultons arguments on a feminists view of housework?

Answer 7

She found that fewer than 20% of husbands had a major role in childcare. She argues that Young and Willmott exaggerate men’s contributions by looking at the tasks involved in childcare rather than the responsibilities. A father might help with specific tasks, but it was almost always the mother being responsible for the child’s security and well-being.

Question 8

What are the three studies that help support Boultons view?

Answer 8

• Ferri and Smith found that fathers took responsibility for childcare in fewer than 4% of families.
• Dex and Ward found that, although fathers had quite high levels of involvement with their three year olds when it came to caring for a sick child, only 1% of fathers took the main responsibility.
• Braun, Vincent and Call - found that in only three families out of 70 studied was the father main carer. Most were background fathers helping childcare was more about relationship with their partner than the responsibility towards their children. Most fathers held a provider ideology that their role was as breadwinner and mothers were primary carer.

Question 9

What is Southertons argument on taking responsibility for quality time?

Answer 9

Southerton argues that achieving quality time is becoming more and more difficult as working mothers find themselves increasingly juggling the demands of work and career, personal leisure time and family, while at the same time managing and coordinating their own and their families social activities. Southerton also notes that some studies now show men and women have more or less equal amounts of leisure time, they have different experiences of it. Men are more likely to experience consolidated blocks of uninterrupted leisure, whereas women’s leisure is often punctuated by child care. Women as also more likely to multi-task than men. This indicates that women are carrying a dual burden in which they face an increased volume of activities to be managed.

Question 10

What is cultural or ideological explanation?

Answer 10

The division of labour is determined by patriarchal norms and values that shape the gender roles in our culture. Women perform more domestic labour simply because that is what society expects them to do and has socialises them to do.

Question 11

What is material or economic explanation of inequality?

Answer 11

The fact that women generally earn less than men means it is economically rational for women to do more of the housework and childcare while men spend more of their time earning money.

Question 12

What is evidence for the cultural explanation, name the four sociologist?

Answer 12

• Gershuny = found that couples whose parents had a more equal relationship are more likely to share housework equally themselves. This suggests parental role models are important. He argues that social values are gradually adapting to the fact that women are now working full time, establishing a new norm that men should do more domestic work.
• Man Yee Kan = found that younger men do more domestic work. Similarly, according to the Future Foundation, most men claimed to do more housework than their father and most women claimed to do less work than their mother. This suggests a generational shift in behaviour is occurring.
• The British Social Attitudes survey = found that while only 47% of the over 75s disagreed with the traditional division of labour, this rose to 75% among the under 35s. This indicates a longterm change in norms, values and attitudes, reflecting changes in the gender role socialisation of younger age groups in favour of more equal relationships.
• Gillian Dunne = found that lesbian couples had more symmetrical relationships because of the absence of traditional heterosexual gender script that is cultural norms that set out the different gender roles men and women are expected to play. This supports Dunnes study on 37 lesbian couples. He argues that heterosexuals are under a lot of pressure to conform to this roles, whereas lesbian relationships are more equal as there is no gender scripts.

Question 13

What is some evidence for the material explanation, name four sociologists?

Answer 13

• Kan = found that for every £10,000 a year more a women earns, she does two hours less housework per week.
• Sara Arber and Jay Ginn = found that better paid, middle class women were more able to buy in commercially produced products and services, such as labour saving devices, ready meals, domestic help and childcare, rather than having to spend time carrying out labour intensive domestic tasks themselves.
• Xavier Ramos = found that where the women is the full-time breadwinner and the man is unemployed, he does as much domestic labour as she does.
• Sullivan = shows that working full-time rather than part time makes the biggest difference in terms of how much domestic work each partner does.

Question 14

What are the three points of Barrett and Mclntosh make about family resources?

Answer 14

• Men gain far more money from women’s domestic work than they give back in financial support.
• The financial support that husbands give to their wives is often unpredictable and comes with strings attached.
• Men usually make the decisions about spending on important items.

Question 15

What are Pahl and Voglers two types of control over family income?

Answer 15

• The allowance system = where men give their wives an allowance out of which they have to budget to meet the family’s needs, with the man retaining any surplus income for himself.
• Pooling = where both partners have access to income and joint responsibility for expenditure; for examples, a joint bank account.

Question 16

What is Edgells argument on decision making?

Answer 16

Edgell found that there are three types of decisions:
- Very important decisions = such as those involving finance, a change of job or moving house, were either taken by the husband alone or taken jointly but with the husband having the final say.
- Important decisions = such as those about children’s education or where to go on holidays, were usually taken jointly, and seldom by the wife alone.
- Less important decisions = such as the choice of home decor, children’s clothes or food purchases, were usually made by the wife.
Edgell argues that the reason men are likely to take the decisions is that they earn more. Women usually earn less than their husbands and being dependant on them economically have less say in decision making.

Question 17

What is Dobash and Dobashs argument on domestic violence and abuse?

Answer 17

Dobash and Dobash found that violent incidents could be set off by what a husband saw as a challenge to his authority, such as his wife asking why he was late home for a meal. They argue that marriage legitimates violence against women by conferring power and authority on husbands and dependency on wives.
The large-scale Crime survey for England and Wales estimates that 7.3% (1.6 million) had experienced domestic abuse in the previous year, compared with 3.6% of men.

Question 18

What are the following three studies on domestic violence?

Answer 18

• Sylvia Walby and Jonathan Allen = found that women were much more likely to be victims of multiple incidents of abuse and of sexual violence.
• Donna Ansara and Michelle Hindin = found that women suffered more severe violence and control, with more serious psychological effects. They also found that women were much more likely than men to be fearful of their partners.
• Aliyah Dar = points out that it can also be difficult to count separate domestic violence incidents, because abuse may be continuous (e.g. living under constant threat) or may occur so often that the victim cannot reliably count the instances.

Question 19

What is the radical feminist explanation and evaluation on domestic violence?

Answer 19

Radical feminist view Dobash an d Dobashs findings as evidence of patriarchy, arguing that all societies are founded on this division between men and women. They view family and marriage as key institution in patriarchal society, where men dominate and oppress women through domestic violence. They believe that widespread domestic violence is an inevitable feature of patriarchal society, preserving men’s power over women. They link patterns of domestic violence to dominate social norms about marriage and the reluctance of police and courts to effectively deal with domestic violence cases.
Radical feminists fail to explain female violence, including Childs abuse by women and violence against men partners and within lesbian relationships. The Crime Survey for England and Wales estimates 13.8% have experienced domestic violence since the age of 16. They wrongly assume that all women are equally at risk of patriarchal violence. They explain why it is women and not men who are victims, but they fail to explain which women are most likely to be victims.
- young women
- lower social classes/living in deprived areas
- low income/financial difficulties
- consumption of drugs and alcohol
- long term disabilities or illnesses

Question 20

What is the materialists explanation and evaluation on domestic violence?

Answer 20

The materialists explanation of domestic violence suggests that it is influenced by economic and material factors like income and housing inequalities. This theory suggests that certain groups are more susceptible to domestic violence due to stress on family members, which can lead to conflict and violence. Inequality, such as low incomes or overcrowded living conditions, can lead to frayed tempers and limited social support.
Wilkinson and Picketts approach explains how social inequality causes stress and conflict in families, with lower social classes experiencing greater hardship. However, they do not explain why women are the main victims. Marxists feminists, like Fran Ansley also see inequality as causing domestic violence, arguing that male workers exploit their wives and take out their frustration. This explanation helps explain male violence against females but does not account for female domestic violence.