Families- couples

Question 1

What does the functionalist Parsons argue about the domestic division of labour in households?

Answer 1

-that men and women’s roles are segregated

-husband has instrumental role - geared towards success at work - provides for family financially

-wife has expressive role - geared towards primary socialisation of children and meeting families emotional needs

-believes women are biologically more suited to the ‘nurturing’ role

-thinks the domestic division of labour benefits both men women

Question 2

What is the domestic division of labour in households?

Answer 2

Roles that couples play in relation to housework, childcare and paid work- sociologists are interested on whether this is equal.

Question 3

What is functionalism?

Answer 3

Theory that argues that there is a social structure that shapes individual behaviour through the process of socialisation and norms/values that are taught at a young age.
-this allows society to cooperate harmoniously and meet society’s needs and achieve shared goals

Question 4

According to functionalists, what are the two types of conjugal roles a married couple can have?

-sociologist?

Answer 4

-segregated conjugal roles where man is the breadwinner (main economic provider) and women is the homemaker/carer
-their leisure activities are also separate

-joint conjugal roles where couple share tasks like housework and childcare
-spend leisure time together

-sociologist is Bott

Question 5

What is Young and Willmott’s ‘march of progress’ view on roles in the family?

Answer 5

-believe in the symmetrical family where men and women’s roles are becoming more similar and equal, improving for all it’s members

Question 6

What are three characteristics of the symmetrical family? - sociologists?

Answer 6

Young and Willmott identified that:
-women now go out to work (part or full time)
-men now help with childcare and housework
-leisure time is now spent together

Question 7

What are 4 reasons for the rise of the symmetrical family? - sociologists?

Answer 7

-new tech (labour saving devices like hoover) so men are encouraged to do more

-due to decrease in extended families there is less pressure on partners to retain traditional roles

-improved rights and status of women gains more respect

-more women are in full employment- means they have more power and are less dependant on men

-sociologists are Young and Willmott

Question 8

What is the feminist view on gender roles within the family and what feminist argues this? - sociologist?

Answer 8

-argues that gender roles are not changing
-says inequality in the household stems from male patriarchy where women are subordinate and dependent on men.

-oakley supports this view

Question 9

What evidence does the feminist Oakley give against Young and Willmott’s theories?

Answer 9

-found most husbands ‘helped’ their wives at least once a week but this could be taking children for walk or making breakfast on one occasion - not symmetrical
-15% of husbands had high participation in housework

Question 10

What evidence does Boulton give against Young and Willmott’s theories?

Answer 10

-fewer than 20% of husbands had a major role in childcare

Question 11

What evidence does Ward and Hetherington give against Young and Willmott’s theories?

Answer 11

-found wives were 30 times more likely to have been the last person to have done the washing

Question 12

What is the dual burden and how does it support the feminist view of housework?

Answer 12

-where women take on the burden of both paid work and domestic work

-even if women want to work, they will be forced into doing the domestic tasks at home as well due to the patriarchal norms and values that men carry where they will refuse to do any domestic work.

Question 13

What is the new man and how does it support the march of progress view?

Answer 13

-younger generation of man taking on an equal share of housework and childcare

Question 14

What evidence does Sullivan give to support the march of progress view on housework?

Answer 14

-found a trend towards women doing a smaller share of the domestic work and man doing more of the traditional ‘women’s’ tasks.

Question 15

What evidence does Gershuny give to support the march of progress view on housework?

Answer 15

-found that women are doing less domestic work when working full time - more equal division of labour

Question 16

How does the British Social Attitudes survey support the march of progress view on housework?

Answer 16

-found a fall in number of people who think it is a mans job to earn money and the women’s job to look after the home and family.

Question 17

What is the feminist view on women going into paid work and how does the British Social Attitudes survey show this?

Answer 17

-although women are going out to work, they are still having to do domestic labour at home

-BSA survey shows men doing 8 hours of housework a week vs women doing 13 hours

Question 18

What evidence does Braun, Vincent & Ball give to show the feminist view on childcare?

Answer 18

-found that 3/70 families studied had the father as the main carer

-most were ‘background fathers’ - helping with childcare was more about relationship with partner rather than their responsibility towards their children.

-also found that mothers saw themselves as primary carers due to ideas about ‘intensive mothering’ in the media telling them how to be good mothers.

Question 19

What is the triple shift and how does it support the feminist view on housework? - sociologists?

Answer 19

-Duncombe and Marsden argue that women have to perform a triple shift between paid work, domestic work and emotion work

-emotion work involves the women managing the feelings of family members as well her own emotions.

Question 20

What are gender scripts?

Answer 20

-When men and women follow the stereotypical roles that they are meant to play within society.

Question 21

Why does the sociologists believe men experience more uninterrupted leisure time than women?

-sociologist

Answer 21

-Because men don’t have to deal with the burden of childcare, unlike women who’s responsibility it is to deal with the children.

-sociologist is Southerton

Question 22

What is the cultural explanation to the unequal division of labour between genders?

sociologists?

Answer 22

-it is determined by patriarchal norms and values that shape gender roles within our culture

-women do more domestic tasks because that is what society expects from them

-sociologists are Crompton and Lyonette

Question 23

What is the material/economic explanation to the unequal division of labour between genders?

sociologists?

Answer 23

-because women generally earn less than men, it is therefore economically rational that they should do more of the housework/childcare whilst men spend more time earning money for the family

-sociologists are Crompton and Lyonette

Question 24

How is Gershunys view evidence for the cultural explanation for the division of labour?

Answer 24

-says that parents are role models to children and are very important in passing on gender norms to them
-by women now working full time, this establishes the norm that men should do more domestic work

Question 25

What evidence does the BSA survey give to back up the cultural explanation for the division of labour?

Answer 25

-there has been a long term change in norms and values for the under 35’s - 75% disagreed with traditional DOV
-younger generations have symmetrical DOV as the norm

Question 26

What evidence does Ramos give to support the material explanation for the division of labour?

Answer 26

-if a man is unemployed, and the woman is the full time breadwinner, he will do as much domestic labour as she does

Question 27

What evidence does Kan give to support the material explanation for the division of labour?

Answer 27

-for every £10k a women earns, she does 2 hours less housework each week

Question 28

Why does Dunne think women can only achieve equality in same sex couples?

Answer 28

-because household tasks are not linked to particular gender scripts
-allows for more equal relationship and equal importance on each partners careers.

Question 29

What do Barrett and McIntosh argue about power within the family?

Answer 29

-that men gain more from women’s domestic work than they give in financial support
-this financial support is usually unpredictable/unconditional
-men usually make the important financial decisions

Question 30

What does Kempson argue about class differences in resources?

Answer 30

-in low income families, women denied their own needs and may skip meals so they can feed their husband/kids

Question 31

What do Pahl and Volger argue are the 2 main types of control over family income?

Answer 31

-pooling - when both partners have access to their incomes (eg- a joint back account)- however, this may give men more power in financial decisions (has full control over both partners money)

-allowance system - when men give wives a certain allowance to meet their families needs or for childcare/food

Question 32

What does Hardill argue about decision making in the family?

Answer 32

-when moving house, the man’s career took priority on influencing where the family would move to - women’s lives structured around men’s

Question 33

What does Edgell argue about decision making in the family?

Answer 33

-even if the couple jointly made decisions, the man would usually have the final say
-day to day decisions (clothes and food purchases) are made by women.
-women have less say in decisions because they are economically dependent on their husband

Question 34

What does Gershuny argue about decision making in the family?

Answer 34

-found that in recent years, decisions are being made more equally
-women who were higher earners and well qualified had a more equal say in decisions

Question 35

What do feminists argue about decision making in the family?

Answer 35

-argue that men being the decision makers is deeply ingrained into our patriarchal society through gender socialisation
-until this is challenged, decision making is likely to remain unequal.

Question 36

What does the Personal Life Perspective argue about the meaning and control of money within the family?

Answer 36

-the way that money is controlled has different meanings to different people

-control doesn’t necessarily mean inequality- eg- cohabiting couples are more likely to share domestic tasks and less likely to pool

Question 37

What did sociologist Smart find to support the personal life perspective?

Answer 37

-found that some gay/lesbian couples gave no importance to the control of money - did not see this as a sign of equality or inequality
-says that this is because homosexual relationships are not based on hetronormative and cultural meanings around money

Question 38

What is co-independence?

Answer 38

-when some money is pooled for household spending but partners have separate accounts for everything else.

Question 39

What reasons do sociologists Dobash and Dobash give for women being the main victims of domestic violence?

Answer 39

-violent incidents could be set off by what a husband saw as a challenge to his authority (asking why he was late)
-says marriage makes violence against women easier by giving power and authority to husbands and dependency on wives

Question 40

What is a definition for domestic violence?

Answer 40

Any incident or series of incidents of physical, psychological or sexual abuse by a current or previous partner.

Question 41

Statistics for domestic violence
-gov and coleman

Answer 41

-GOV.uk - 2.4 million victims of domestic abuse a year aged 16 to 74
-Coleman - women are 4 times more likely to have experienced domestic abuse than men

Question 42

Why may official statistics on domestic violence be invalid?

Answer 42

-victims unwilling to report
-police unwilling to record, investigate or prosecute

Question 43

What is the radical feminist explanation to domestic violence?

Answer 43

-men oppress and exploit women through domestic violence

-dv serves to preserve the power men have over women

-male dominance in institutions such as the police explains why little is done to deal with domestic violence

Question 44

What is the materialist explanation to domestic violence?

Answer 44

-worries about money may lead to dv
-reduced leisure time leads to more stress and therefore more dv

-those with less power, status, wealth and income are at a greater risk of being victims of dv
-low income household likely to more stressed and overworked- take anger out on women

Question 45

What is the evaluation to oppose the radical feminist explanation of domestic violence?

Answer 45

-Elliot says that not all men are aggressive and most are opposed to domestic violence

-radical feminists fail to explain abuse by women to men - Crime Survey shows 14% of men have suffered from domestic violence.

Question 46

What is the evaluation to oppose the materialist explanation of domestic violence?

Answer 46

-it doesn’t explain why men, in particular, are more likely to commit dv