Families & Households - Families & The Domestic Division Of Labour Flashcards
What are the 2 key questions sociologists ask today about the division of labour?
Do men & women share childcare & housework equally?
Do men & women get equal share of household income?
What are conjugal roles?
Domestic roles/tasks that spouses are primarily responsible for within their married/cohabiting relationship
What is the domestic division of labour?
The division of tasks within the household between partners
SOCIOLOGIST: What did Parsons say about the domestic division of labour?
He argued that there is a clear difference between spouses based on biological differences (expressive & instrumental roles)
Claimed these divisons are beneficial to men, women, children & wider society
What are the criticisms of Parsons view on the domestic division of labour?
Single parent families
Women can do jobs outside the home
Orphans - no parents
Gay couples - same sex
Men can be nurturing to their children - stay at home dads
Wilmott & young argue that men do more housework now & women work more
Feminists argue that these roles aren’t natural & the family only benefits men
What 2 roles did Elizabeth Bott identify?
Segregated conjugal roles
Joint conjugal roles
What are segregated conjugal roles?
Where a couple have separate roles (men = breadwinner, women = homemaker)
What are joint conjugal roles?
Where a couple share tasks, both earn money & spend leisure time together
Who spoke about symmetrical families?
Wilmott & Young take a march of progress view on symmetrical families saying that things are gradually improving for the all members of the family
They argued that by 1973 that the trend towards symmetrical families was underway with men helping with housework & women going out to work
Why did Wilmott & Young see a rise in symmetrical families?
Men were doing more housework
Women’s careers
Increase in women’s rights
Higher & better standard of living
More stay at home dads
Improving women’s education
Geographical mobility
New technology & labour-saving devices
What is the feminist perspective on symmetrical families?
Many feminists reject the march of progress view (not liberal feminists)
Argue little change in terms of gender roles in the family
Oakley criticises Wilmott & Young & suggested that men do more housework based on doing 1 more task a week - not symmetry
Oakley found husbands were more likely to help with childcare than household work
Boulton found Wilmott & Young exaggerate men’s contribution by looking at tasks & not responsibility (mostly drawn to women)
Hetherington & Warde support Boulton - women do most of the domestic tasks however there is evidence of a slight change in younger men (women still do the majority)
What does Oakley say about the social construction of the housewife role?
She said the 19th century rise of industrialisation saw women gradually excluded from paid work so the housewife role came about & remains women’s primary role
When women do work they are concentrated in low paid ‘caring’ types job - extension of the housewife role
What is a duel burden?
When a women has to carry out domestic tasks as well as paid work
What is some supporting research & statistics for the duel burden?
ONS - women spend on average 2.5hrs per day on housework, men do 1hr
Women 30x more likely to do the washing, men 4x likely to wash the car
Boulton - only 20% of husbands have a major role in childcare
What is some contradicting research for the duel burden?
Gershuny - paid work has resulted in an increase of equality for women at home & found working women did less housework (full time = 73%, dont = 83%)
Crompton - agrees but says its linked to how much women earn not a change in attitude/values
