Families- gender roles and relationships Flashcards
MOCK YEAR 2
DOMESTIC DIVISION OF LABOUR
Functionalists + source1:
Parsons: 2 conjugal roles, instrumental (male breadwinner) and expressive role (female nurturer role).
- Says that the gender division of labour among couples is functional for the family, its members and the wider society.
Functionalists + source2:
Bott: march of progress- 2 roles:
- segregated conjugal roles: sharp division of labour between male breadwinner and female homemaker.
-joint conjugal roles: couples sharing domestic tasks and leisure.
Symmetrical family + source
Young and Willmott:
-most women now go out to work
-men help with housework and childcare
-couples spend their leisure time together.
This is due to social changes during the 20th century: higher living standards, women working and smaller families.
Feminism view:
Reject march of progress view, they see families as patriarchal, not symmetrical or equal.
Feminism source 1:
Oakley found no evidence of symmetry, argues that Young and Willmott exaggerate mens role.
Feminism source 2: Bolton
Bolton: the wife is seen as responsible for childrens welfare, even when men ‘help’.
ARE COUPLES BECOMING MORE EQUAL. Feminist overall view:
Do not believe that working women has led to greater equality, women now carry a dual burden of paid work and domestic view.
Responsibility for children, source+ stat:
Mothers usually take responsibility for caring for a sick child.
Dex and ward: found that only 1% of fathers take the main responsibility for caring for a sick child.
Responsibility for quality time:
Women generally take responsibility for managing the families ‘quality time’
The triple shift + source:
Duncombe and Marsden: women carry dual burden + triple shift: emotion work, domestic labour and paid work.
EXPLAINING THE GENDER DIVISION OF LABOUR: Cultural/ ideological explanation:
Patriarchal cultural norms shape gender roles. Women perform more domestic labour because this is what society expects and has socialised them to do.
Evidence for equality (cultural/ideological) + source:
Gershuny: couples have neem adapting to women working full time, a new norm is created of men doing domestic work.
Kan: younger men do more domestic work.
Material/ economic explanation:
Women earn less than men, its economically rational for them to do more domestic labour while men spend time earning money.
Evidence of equality (material/ economic):
Arber and Ginn: Paid women buy in products and services such as childcare.
Ramos: when the woman is the full time breadwinner and the man is unemployed, they do equal amounts of domestic labour.
SAME SEX COUPLES AND GENDER SCRIPTS: Radical feminists
Radical feminists argue that heterosexual relationships are inevatibly patriarchal and unequal even when women are in paid work.
Dunne’s study:
37 lesbian couples with children, found a more equal division of labour.
Gender scripts:
Heterosexuals: socialised into gender scripts that set out different mascuiline and feminine roles and gender identities.
Lesbians: did not link household tasts to gender scripts, more open to negotiation and therefore is more equal.
Decision making and paid work + source:
Men take a greater share of resources because they earn more. Pahl and Vogler:
- the allowance system: men give their non working wives an allowance.
- pooling: both partners work and have a joint responsibility for spending (joint bank account)
