Gender equality/ roles in the fanily

Question 1

Liberal feminists perspective of equality and power within the family

Question 2

Radical feminists perspective of equality and power within the family

Question 3

Marxists feminists perspective of equality and power within the family

Question 4

Conjugal roles

Answer 4

In the part there were clear behavioral guidelines for the two adults in the nuclear family.

Question 5

Housework and childcare

Answer 5

Gershuny (2006) observed that women of all ages , ethnicities and classes do more domestic labour than men.
Women spend more time doing routine domestic tasks while men do jobs like gardening and repairs.

Kan (2001) found that levels of housework that women did were slightly reduced by paid employment

Ramos (2003) notes that domestic labour is more likely to be equally distributed when the male is unemployed and his partner works full time.

Women perform many of the boring tasks in child care e.g feeding and clothing while men do the less boring tasks like e.g playing with the children.

Question 6

Changes in conjugal roles in the family

Question 7

‘Men have more power than women in the family.’
Explain this view 10ms

Answer 7

Husband’s power comes from his position as the major earner / main
breadwinner (Edgell).

 Men tend to make the very important financial decisions/men control the
money (Edgell / Pahl and Vogler).

 Even when the man is unemployed, women are still expected to do the
domestic work (Morris) – reflects ingrained patriarchal norms and values/traditions.

 Middle class women generally deferred to their husbands in major decisions (Hardill et. al.) – this reflects the man’s economic status/power

 Domestic abuse is used by the husband/man to reinforce authority
(Dobash and Dobash).

 Family exists within a culture of patriarchal ideology that oppresses
women (radical feminism)/serves men.

 Men continue to get the biggest share of family resources / income (Barrett and McIntosh) – reflects the man’s power in controlling budgets etc.

 Gender roles are based on biology and so men are naturally seen as superior and more suited to the role of breadwinner /women in the expressive role (functionalism) – this creates hierarchy of authority.

Question 8

Oakley (1974)

Answer 8

Oakley argues that men only have to do a few tasks around the house to qualify as having joint roles.

Oakley’s research found that it was rare for men to do a lot of housework. She also saw how 10 minutes washing up for a man was the equivalent to an hour of hoovering for a woman

-Oakley argued that women had now had a dual burden. Yes, more women were going out to work, but they were also doing the bulk of the housework and childcare. As such, she argued that increased female employment had not made the family more equal but just meant that women had to work two jobs.

Question 9

Willmott and Young (1971)

Answer 9

W&Y claimed that although the wife still continues to have primary responsibility, 72% of husbands get involved with housework tasks other than washing up

-They argued that in 1973, families had become symmetrical - that is, that men and women performed similar roles. Rather than the traditional nuclear family described by Parsons where men and women had very separate roles in the family (segregated gender roles) Willmott and Young argued that in modern families men and women both did paid work and both did work around the house, including childcare

-Another important concept for Willmott & Young was stratified diffusion. They argued that changes in norms and values tend to start among the wealthier in society and then others start to behave in the same way (the behaviour is “diffused” from one strata - class - to another).