Families and households - Gender roles and Relationships Flashcards
Who referred to the roles of men and women play in family unit as being conjugal roles?
Elizabeth Bott
What were these roles and what do they mean?
Joint conjugal - where the couples share taskse.g housework/childcare and spend lesiure time together
Segregated conjugal - husband and wife have a clear differentation of tasks and considerable number of separate interests and activities
Who are the three sociologists that from the work of Bott carried out studies?
Willmott and Young
Oakley
Boulton
What did Willmott and Young find?
Joint conjugal roles - most husbands help their wives at least once a week
Family is now symmetrical
Younger couples are sharing roles more often than older couples
What did Oakley find?
Segregated conjugal - Only 15% of husbands had a high level of participation in housework
25% in childcare involvement
Husbands participate in mpre pleasureable aspects
What is Boulton find?
Segregated conjugal - Fewer than 20% of husbands had a major role in childcare
Young and Willmott exaggerate husband’s contribution
Always the mother who was responsible for the child’s security
Impact of paid work - what do march of progress sociologists argue?
That we now have a ‘new man’ who takes on board an equal share of housework and childcare, to allow for the fact his wife is working.
However what do feminists say about the impact of paid work?
Nothing has changed and women now have a ‘dual burden’
What evidence is there for the march of progress view on impact of paid work?
Gershuny - women working full time leading to more equal division of labour in the home. Using time studies he found out that these women did less domesic work than other women
Sullivan
British social attitudes survey
What evidence is there for the feminist view on the impact of paid work?
Dex and Ward - 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 main responsibility
Braun Vincent and Ball
British social attitudes survery
What are the 2 case studies for a dual burden?
Man-yee kan - educated women tended to do less housework than women who left school at 10
Arber and Ginn - Found that better paid middle class women were able to buy in commerciallly produced product/services. Meaning they didn’t have to spend time carrying out labour intensive domestic tasks themselves reducing DB for middle class women
Who identified the two explanations for the unequal divison of labour within the family and what where they?
Crompton and Lyonette
CULTURAL - DOL(division of labour) determined by patriarchal norms and values that shape gender roles in the culture. Women perform more DL (society expects from them/socialised to do) Equality only achieved if norms about GR change - changing socialisation process (norms, values and expecations and attiudes society has
MATERIAL - Women earn less than men meaning it is economically rational for women to do more HW and childcare, men spend more of their time earning money - suggesting pay gap been eradicated should expect to see m+w doing more equal amounts of DL
How do same sex couples and heterosexual couples differ when it comes to division of labour
Lesbian couples with dependant children were more likely than heterosexual women to say that their relationship was equal/ equal importance in both partner’s careers
Dunne - heterosexuals are under pressure to conform to masculine of feminine gender scripts. Performing different different domestic tasks that replicate gender identities
Lesbian couples - household tasks not linked to particular gender scripts, allows them to create more equal relationship
Power relationships - who looked at how money and finances are controlled in the family unit and how it impacts upon decision making?
Pahl and Volger
What are the two main types of financial control
Pooling- man and woman put their finances together
Allowance system - one person with ultimate control (traditionally the man)
What did they find out about the types of financial control?
Pooling is increasing and allowance system becoming a thing of the past
Even though pooling has increased, men still make the majority of decisions about how money is spent
Who studied professional couples and how they made decisions?
Edgell
What did Edgell suggest?
Three different types of decisions made within the family unit, each made by a different person:
Very important e.g moving house made by the man alone/joint discussion where man would have final say
Important e.g where a should go to school/where they go on holiday - usually joint but never by woman alonw
Less important e.g home decor/clothes/food purchases - made by woman alone
Why do men dominate the decision making according to Edgell?
Because they earn more and women tend to earn less -> dependant on man financially, less say in important decisions
What evidence is there towards a greater equality in financial control and decision making?
Laurie and Gershuny- by 1995 70% of couples said they had an equal say in decisions
Found that high earning women who tended to get more of a say
Outline 3 reasons why domestic violence statistics are likely to understate the extent of the social problem?
2/3 of victims of domestic violence do not seek help - afraid violence will get worse/ are ashamed
Only about 1/4 of all domestic violence icidents are reported
6% of all reported rapes lead to a rapist being convicted
Do you think violence by women against men is more or less likely to be reported than domestic violence by men against women?
Men, less likely? - seen to display attributes such as strength/power, less openly display emotion
Who did the TED talk of the case study ‘crazy love’
lesile steiner
85% of abusers are men
Over 500 women/girls are killed every year becaause of domestic violence
