Gender inequality Flashcards
Gender roles over time…
1950s - Parsons’ segregated roles
1970s - Joint conjugal roles - roles and leisure time shared equally
1990s - Egalitarian or negotiation families - wishes and expectations are shared and sex if for intimacy, rather than for reproduction
Parsons’ view…
The family was characterised by a heterosexual couples gender division in the home.
Where segregated conjugal roles were shared un-equally as men played the instrumental role whereas women played the expressive role.
Instrumental =achieving success at work so he can provide for the family financially. He is the breadwinner.
Expressive = primary socialisation of the children and meeting the family’s emotional needs. She is the homemaker, a full time housewife rather than a wage earner.
Young and Wilmott’s ‘march of progress’ view…
Young and Wilmott (1973) took a ‘march of progress’ view of the history of the family After their study of London couples:
They saw family life as gradually improving for all its members, becoming more equal and democratic.
They argued that there was a long term trend away from segregated conjugal roles and towards joint conjugal roles.
1970s symmetrical family…
Wilmott and Young also identified the emergence of what they called the ‘symmetrical family’: one in which the roles of husbands and wives, although not identical are now much more similar:
- Women now go out to work full time
- Men now help with housework and child care
- Couples now spend their leisure time together rather than separately
Egalitarian family…
Definition of egalitarian – everyone is equal and deserving of rights.
Anthony Giddens argues that in recent decades the family and marriage have become more egalitarian because:
> Contraception has allowed sex and intimacy rather than reproduction to become the main reason for the relationship’s existence.
> Women have gained independence because of greater opportunities in education and work.
Ulrich Beck…
Ulrich Beck puts forward a similar view to that of Giddens, arguing that the traditional patriarchal family has been undermined by two trends:
> Greater Gender Equality – This has challenged male domination in all spheres of life. Women now expect equality both at work and in marriage.
> Greater individualism – where people’s actions are influenced more by calculations of their own self-interest than by a sense of obligation to others.
Negotiated families…
These trends have led to the rise of the negotiated family.
Negotiated families do not conform to the traditional family norm, but vary according to the wishes and expectations of their members, who decided what is best for them by discussion.
They enter the relationship on an equal basis.
Narrowing of the gender gap in domestic labour?…
Numerous surveys carried out since the 1950s show a narrowing of the gender gap in the domestic division of labour.
Liberal Feminists, and Young and Wilmott would argue that this is because more women are in paid work and families become more symmetrical.
Does the commercialisation of housework have an impact?…
New technologies such as washing machines, hoovers and fridge-freezers (think ready meals) have reduced the amount of housework that needs doing and narrows the gender divide in the domestic division of labour.
Studies and statistics…
A 2019 study UCL study based on interviews with 8 500 opposite sex couples found that:
> Women do 16 hours of household chores every week, men do closer to six.
> Women did the bulk of the domestic chores in 93 per cent of couples.
> There was a 50-50 split of domestic chores in 6% of couples.
> Only 1% of couples had men doing more domestic work than women.
Mintel Housework Survey 2004…
> 35% of German men do no cleaning and 40% spend a little time on this task, compared the the 6% in the UK.
> 25% of French women and 7% of men do a lot of cleaning. Compared to the 81% of women and 25% of men in the UK.
> 3% of Britons , 20% of Germans and 16% of Spaniards did no domestic labour at all.
Mumsnet survey…
Changing lightbulbs, taking the bins out and DIY were the only three of 54 common domestic tasks done in more than half of cases by men, with 15 roughly shared and the rest chiefly carried out by women.
Most often done by female partners were organising playdates, health appointments, childcare and birthday parties – as well as cleaning and laundry. Parents evenings, school plays and bedtime stories are most often seen as shared activities.
Analysis…
Looking at the above statistics it seems reasonable to conclude that Radical Feminist concepts such as the dual burden and the triple shift still apply.
We can also conclude that women going into paid work has not yet resulted in total equality in the domestic division of labour.
It also seems reasonable to assume that there may be social class differences in the gendered division of labour – the top 10% of households will be in a position to hire cleaners and child care thus reducing the dual burden on middle class, professional women.
Another way in which middle class women will be advantaged compared to working class is that because of their husbands’ hire earning power, they will be more able to take time off work to be full time stay at home mums – meaning that they may do more domestic labour, but at least they don’t suffer the dual burden and triple shift.
Children’s chores…
Jens Bonke (1999) argued that children generally make a fairly small contribution to domestic labour - pre-school children, as you might expect are largely uninvolved in such work.
Domestic labour contributions peak at 20 (approximately 2½ hour a week). Boys appear to contribute less towards domestic labour than girls; of lone-children families, girls average 5 times as much housework as boys (2.5 hours / week as against 30 minutes).
In terms of paid housework, an Abbey National survey of 702 parents with children aged 16 or under in 2004 found that of 9 domestic chores, boys were given more money than girls to do all but general house cleaning. 60% of the survey claimed children did more housework than they did when they were young.
