Gender Inequality and the Family

Question 1

Types of family properties

Answer 1

sexual,
generational, and household

Question 2

Sexual Property

Answer 2

Property over bodies, sexual intimacy and marriage are exclusive between two people

affection and jealousy vary w structure of sexual property relstionships

Question 3

Generational Property

Answer 3

Property over children, loss of parental right to determine childrens partners, economically exploiting children, Declining importance of children’s inheritance rights and loss of parental right to exercise control through violence

Question 4

Changes in generational property system

Answer 4

1. increasing importance of parents’ emotional rights and obligations
2. children’s expanding economic claims and moral rights

Question 5

Household Property

Answer 5

Property over material sources Democratization of householding accompanied by wives’ unequal burden of domestic labor

Marx: women are propertyless workers, they reproduce the labor force

Question 6

Changes in household property system

Answer 6

1. Women’s access to employment has changed dynamics in household economy.
2. Businesses provide household services, but these benefits are unequally distributed by class

Question 7

Effects of women’s economic empowerment

Answer 7

1. less need to confine sex to marriage; increased sexual openness
2. informal marriages (cohabiting) and delayed formal marriages
3. divorce
4. birth control (including abortion)

Question 8

Politics of abortion

Answer 8

A huge anti-abortion movement, is it a reactionary crusade against the changing role of women— especially by women who are not prepared for careers outside the home?