family 2 - gender, labour, and relationships

Question 1

what are the two main points about domestic labour in the family?

s…
w…

Answer 1

1. the symmetrical family - young and willmott
-‘do you/does your husband help at least once a week with household jobs?’
-symmetrical family was privatised
-principle of stratified diffusion

2. women in paid work - gershuny
-the influence of paid work on housework
-women doing less housework
-men used to the idea that women are working
-follow up study: men were doing more housework, maybe due to gender socialisation = ‘new man’

1. young and willmot:
-too limited - only conducted in london - not representative
-oakley is critical - y+w assume doing one task a week is equality
2. gershuny:
-dunscombe and marsden - triple shift

Question 2

what is the evidence against the symmetrical family?

o…

Answer 2

oakley:
-men ‘help out’ and only do female jobs when women aren’t around
-reluctance is due to gender socialisation
-m/c and w/c very few men had high participation in housework and childcare
-15% shared housework, 25% childcare
-men do pleasureable jobs

ev: small scale - 40 studies - cannot be generalised

Question 3

what is the evidence against women in paid work?

d… and m…

Answer 3

dunscombe and marsden:
-women actually face a triple shift, not a dual burden
-paid work, domestic work, and emotion work
-in most families, emotion work is solely the woman’s responsibility. men offer little or no support

Question 4

what are the two main points about power relationships in the family?

c…
d…

Answer 4

1. control of the family finances - pahl and vogler
-many dual earner couples pool their money
-co-independence is common in younger couples
-changing social atitudes and women in work = greater equality in couple’s access to money

2. decision making - march of progress view
-relationships have become more democratic
-may be due to the increase in dual earner families
-power and authority no longer untimately rests with the man

1. pahl and vogler:
-less than half (44%) of women have sole responsibility on financial decisions. may be due to women earning less
2. march of progress:
-hardhill et al

Question 5

what is the evidence against control of the family finances?

r…

Answer 5

radical feminists:
-men restrict access to money through allowances, this results in an imbalance of power
-makes relationships toxic and patriarchal, may give rise to coercive and controlling relationships

Question 6

what is the evidence against shared decision making?

h…

Answer 6

hardhill et al:
-professional couples who both work, the man makes the most importnant decisions
-most say in decisions that involved money as he often made the most
-feminists = realtionships remain patriarchal - may be due to normalisation of traditional ideas (parson’s gender roles)

Question 7

what are the patterns and trends on domestic violence in the family?

Answer 7

1. one in four women in the uk suffer from some form of domestic violence. this can be sexual, physical, psychologicl, or financial
2. every week in the uk, two women are murdered by their partners or ex partners

Question 8

what are the three sociological explanations for domestic violence?

r…
m…
m… (m…)

Answer 8

1. radical feminism - patriarchy
-men use violence to exert their power and dominance if their authority is threatened
-dobash and dobash - marriage gives men the authority and right to control their wives by beating them
2. marxist feminists - capitalism and patriarchy
-males face alienation at work and are powerless - they go home and are frustrated about this
-ansley - women are ‘takers of shit’
3. marxism (materialist)
-domestic stress leads to domestic violence
-common in w/c families with material deprivation
-higher levels of violence in w/c families

2. marxist feminism:
-does not explain violence against men - 1 in 6 men experience domestic violence. wives experience alienation and powerlessness at work (and are more likely to). men may be the ‘takers of shit’