Family Topic 3- Roles And Relationships Flashcards
Define the domestic division of labour
The division of tasks, roles, and duties within the household (hh)
Who named the roles for men and women
Talcott Parsons created the names for separate and distinct roles that men and women have
(Expressive and instrumental)
Define the instrumental role
Male role
Geared towards achieving success at work, earning money for the household and supporting them financially.
He is the breadwinner
Define the expressive role
Female role
Socialisation of the young and meeting the families emotional needs.
She is the homemaker, and a full time housewife, rather than wage earner.
What does parsons argue the diction of labour is based on
Biological differences
What does parsons argue women are more naturally suited to (roles)
The nurturing role
What does parsons argue men are more naturally suited to (roles)
The provider
Young and Willmott criticism on parsons gender roles
Argue these roles are outdated, and these roles have changed. Men in current times are taking a greater share of domestic tasks. Women are now working more
Feminist criticism on parsons gender roles
This division of labour is not natural and it only benefits men, rather than men and women, and society like parsons argued
What are the types of roles defined by Bott
Conjugal roles; segregated and joint
Define Bott’s segregated conjugal role
Whwre the couples have separate roles: a male breadwinner and a female homemaker/career (as in parsons roles)
Their leisure activities also tend to be separate (relaxation etc)
Define Bott’s joint conjugal roles
Where the couple share tasks such as housework and childcare and spend their leisure time together
Define Young and Wilmott’s March of progress view
Mop view of the family means that the family life is seen to be gradually improving for all its members and becoming more equal.
Young and Wilmott’s argument on how the family is becoming more symmetrical (mop view)
They argue there has been long term movement away from segregated conjugal roles, and a movement towards joint conjugal roles and a symmetrical family
Define Young and Wilmott’s symmetrical family
Roles of husband and wife are a lot more similar (but not necessarily identical)
Eg women are now going to work// men helping more with housework// couples now spending their leisure time together instead of separately
Describe Young and Wilmott’s research in London on gender roles
Found the symmetrical family was more common among;
young couples // couples who were geographically isolated // and more affluent
Young and Wilmott’s reason for the increase in the symmetrical family
Symmetrical family increase as a result of major social changes during the last century
Eg: changes in womens position // geographical mobility (driving to work etc) // new technology (dishwasher etc to help with domestic tasks) // higher standards of living require more money
Future foundations study (2000) findings on gender roles participation with domestic labour
In a study of 1,000 adults, 60% of men claimed to do more housework than their fathers and 15% of women do less housework than their mothers
Feminist Anne Oakley view on the March of progress view
Anne Oakley rejects the mop view. She believes little has changed between men and women
Women still remain unequal in the family
They see this inequality as stemming from the fact that the family and society are “male dominated”
Anne Oakley criticism on Young and Wilmott’s interview claims
Anne Oakley claims Young and Wilmott’s views are over exaggerated.
Eg, in their interviews they claimed most men “helped” their wives at least once a week. — this is hardly symmetrical
Anne Oakley (feminist) research on housewives and her findings
Found some evidence of husbands helping in the home, but defo not symmetrically
Only 15% of husbands had a higher level of participation in the housework, and only 25% had a high level of participation in childcare, with fathers taking on the “fun” activities with children such as taking them on days out
Boulton (feminist) findings on male involvement with childcare
Found that 20% of husbands had a major role in childcare.
Argues that Young and Wilmott exaggerate mens contribution because they looked at tasks rather than overall responsibility
Eg- a father might help with some tasks, but a mother is always more likely to be responsible for overall security and well being
Warde and Hetherington (‘93) (feminist) findings on different gender tasks
Found that sex typing of domestic roles is still very strong. Women are 30% more likely to be the last person to have done the washing, whilst men were 4x more likely to be the last person to have washed the car
They found that men were only likely to do “female” tasks if their wives were not around to do them
Gershunny (‘94) findings on women who didn’t work compared to women who do and their involvement with housework
Women who didn’t work= 83% of housework
Women who work full time = 73%
Gershunny explains this trend as being a gradual change in the values of society, and to the fact women are now working full time
However, even tho men are now doing more housework, they still tend to take responsibility for different tasks
Sullivan (2000) nationally collected data on gender roles
Analysis of nationally collected data in 19; ‘75, ‘87, ‘97 found a trend towards greater equality as men did more domestic labour within the housework, especially in womens tasks
Crompton view on gender roles as a result of paid work
Agrees with Sullivan; but says it’s due to women now having more power within the household as they are contributing money
Man-Ye Kan (2001) view on paid work impacting gender roles in domestic labour
Income, age and education can have a positive or negative correlation with the amount of housework women do.
For every £10,000 increase in salary, there is a 2 hour reduction in housework for women
Ferri and Smith (‘96) view on paid work leading to equal domestic roles
Argue that paid work has little impact on women, and women now have a “dual burden”
In their sample of 1,500 + men and women = father took more responsibility for children in only 4% of families
Describe Ferri and Smith (‘96) sample and findings on paid work leading to equal roles
In their sample of 1,500 + men and women = father took more responsibility for children in only 4% of families
Define Ferri and Smith dual burden
Women have to take on full time paid work AND the responsibility of maintaining their household, leading to stress due to a dual burden of work and maintenance
Morris (‘90) findings on mens involvement with housework even when unemployed (impact of paid work)
Found that even when men were unemployed, and the women was in full time work, men still didn’t do more in the home. In their study, they found that unemployed men had lost their masculine role and saw domestic work in the home as a woman’s job and avoided it
Define Marsden’s tripple shift
Women now have the responsibility of paid work, housework and the emotional work of looking after the family
Therefore paid work for women has caused more burden for them rather than benefiting them
Silver (‘87) and Schor (‘93) description of the commercialisation of housework and impact on women
Emphasis that because women are now earning money, this has contributed to less housework for them- partly because of the commercialisation of housework. This refers to goods and services that women are now able to purchase instead of doing it themselves. It has made their job a lot easier, and have given them less to do
What does the commercialisation of housework mean
- Cleaning influencers (Mrs hinch, tiktok etc who help with household cleaning by giving ideas and tips)
- machines (dishwashers, washing machines)
- ready meals
What are gender scripts
Expectations laid out by society about the different roles played by men and women
Outline Dunne’s study on lesbian couples (gender scripts)
Investigated how roles workEd within lesbian couples. Dunne studied 37 cohabiting lesbian couples with dependant children and compared their roles to heterosexual couples.
What did Dunne find on lesbian couples gender roles
Dunne found that compared to heterosexual couples, lesbian couples were more likely to: describe their relationship as equal, and share housework and childcare equally
- give importance to both partners
- view childcare positively
How did Dunne explain his finding on lesbian couples v heterosexual
Lesbian couples interact in different ways, as they are not under pressure to conform to traditional feminine and masculine gender scripts
This supports the radical feminists idea that women can only achieve equality in same sex couples
Dunne conclusion on his investigation on lesbian couples and paid work
Dunne found that when one partner did more paid work than the other, the time each partner spent on domestic housework was unequal, showing that the impact of paid work still has an impact even on same sex couples
Paul and Vogler view on gender scripts and who controls the family
Pahl and Vogler argued that men usually control the family income and make important decisions because usually, men contribute more money to the household. They identify two main types of control over family income
Define the term pooling
Pooling is where men give their wives an allowance out of the income
What is an allowance system
Where men give their wives an allowance out of the income
Paul and Vogler findings on pooling
Paul and Vogler found that pooling is increasing- 19% to 50%
They found that pooling was as more common among couples where both partners work full time, therefore they found that even then men usually make the major financial decisions
What did Edgell (80) find on gender roles and making decisions
Found that very important decisions such as chnage of job, moving house, large finances were taken by the husband alone or jointly, with the husbands always having the final say
Less important decisions such as joke decor, childcare, clothing and food purchases were usually made by the wife
What are the 2 main types of abuse and violence in the household
domestic violence
Child abuse
Define child abuse
Violence and abuse perpetrated by adults against kids
Define domestic violence
one adult partner against another domestic violence
The home office definition of domestic violence
Any violence between current or former partners in an intimate relationship wherever and whenever it occurs. The violence may include physical, sexual, emotional or financial abuse
Crime survey for England and Wales stats for domestic violence in 2014-5
Crime survey estimates figures on domestic violence and other forms of abuse in 2014-15 in the past 12 months in eng and wales estimated 261,000 victims of domestic violence
Domestic violence stats in ‘81-96
Domestic violence rose between 1981-96 but has declined in most years since
2009-10 survey on who is mostly affected by domestic violence
Women are 2x more likely to be domestic violence victims
Also found 7% of women aged 16-59 victims of domestic violence in previous years, compared to 4% of men
Nazroo (’99) suggestion on how domestic violence affects men and women
Suggests domestic violence perpetrated by men against women tends to be more serious than the other way around
Women more likely to be fearful of violence than men
Yearnshire (97) view on official statistics on domestic violence
She believes official statistics underestimate the true extent of the problem due to womens reluctance to report to the police. She estimates women suffer on average 35 adults before reporting it to the police.
Domestic violence is the least likely crime to be reported
Cheal (‘91) reason as to why domestic violence isn’t reported much
Believes domestic isn’t reported much to the fact police and other agencies are reluctant to become involved with the family
This is a private sphere, so access by state agencies should be limited.
The family is a “good” thing so negative aspects tend to be ignored- people are considered to be free agents, therefore expected to leave easily which is not the case
Dobash and dobash’s Scotland research on domestic violence
Found that more women are likely to be victims of dv
Men are likely to be the predator
1 in 8 women are repeatedly assaulted by partners
Base their findings on police and court records and interviewed women in refuges
Dobash and Dobash’s examples of domestic violence from their Scotland study
They cite examples of wives being slapped, pushed about, beaten, raped or killed by their husbands.
Dobash and dobash’s findings on how domestic violence incidents could be set off (Scotland research)
They found violent incidents could be set off by what a husband saw as a challenge to his authority, such as asking why he was late home for a meal!
Radical feminist belief on men dominating in the family through domestic violence
Radical feminists interpret the findings of studies such as Dobash and Dobash as evidence of patriarch on the family
Men are the enemy, and are oppressors and exploiters of women
Radical feminists see the family as the main source of womens oppression, and argue men dominate women through domestic violence, or the threat of it.
Feminists attempt to explain why most domestic violence is against women - arguing that violence is a a form of maintaining patriarchy and power in the household
Elliot (‘96) rejection of radical feminist view on domestic violence
Elliot rejects radical feminist view of domestic violence, stating that it ignore that a large majority of men do not commit domestic violence and are opposed to it. Radical feminists ignore this
Radical feminist Pizzey (‘74) reason for domestic violence
Pizzey sees domestic violence as resulting from patriarchy. In a male- dominated or patriarchal society, men use violence or the threat of violence in order to control women. Pizzey also argues that domestic violence is widely tolerated and often not seen as a serious crime. Patriarchal
values lead to female partners being seen as essentially the property of their male partners, and therefore using violence to control them is seen as partially acceptable.
Brookman (08) reason as to why domestic violence happens
Brookman (08) believes that the nature of masculinity is partly to blame for domestic violence. In our culture, masculinity values control over others, so men can resort to violence if they feel they are losing control over their female partner. Her research was based on in-depth interviewing with violent men.
Problems with radical feminists reasons for domestic violence
A problem with this approach is that it does not explain the existence of domestic violence perpetrated by women against men. Social attitudes may also have changed since Pizzey’sresearch, with domestic violence now seen as less socially acceptable by the public, and ore likely to result in prosecution by the police.
New right/neoliberal reason as to why domestic violence occurs (dysfunctional families)
Some conservative commentators associated with the views of the
New Right/Neoliberals believe that domestic violence takes place in
dysfunctional families. Their view is that violence results from the
instability of families caused by factors such as increasing
cohabitation and divorce, and the decline in moral standards in some
families, particularly those from lower social classes. This view suggests
that feminists exaggerate male violence and underestimate female
violence.
Criticism of new right/ neoliberal/ conservative reasons for domestic violence (dysfunctional family)
This approach is criticised by feminists who believe that male violence
against women is both much more serious and much more common
than female violence against men.
Giddens (06) reason for domestic violence (emotional intensity and family life)
Giddens (06) arques that it is the nature of family life that
makes domestic violence quite common. Family life is characterised by ‘emotional intensity and personal intimacy’, meaning that it is normally charged with strong emotions, often ‘mixing love and hate’. In these circumstances, even minor arguments can escalate into acts of violence. The increasing isolation of the nuclear family from extended kinship networks may be increasing
this intensity.
Criticisms of Giddens reasons for domestic violence occurring (emotional intensity and family life)
A problem with this approach is that it doesn’t explain why violence is common in some families and not in others.
Pizzey view on dv
Argues domestic violence is due to patriarchal values. In a patriarchal society, men can use violence or the threat of to control their wives. The threat of dv is accepted and often not viewed as a serious crime. Patriarchal values lead women to be seen as the object of the husband and therefore he can use measures to control her
Criticism of pizzey dv
Pizzeys view does not explain dv on men by women. Social attitudes may have also changed since 1974 and dv is seen as less acceptable and more likely to be reported and taken seriously by police
