Gender roles and relationships

Question 1

Domestic labour

Answer 1

-Traditional views, e.g functionalism suggest domestic labour is more suited to women due to their biological traits
-Typified by Parsons’s Sex Role Theory where women are encouraged to take on the expressive role

Question 2

Cost of domestic labour

Answer 2

-Women’s unpaid labour accounts for £700 billion of this total
-Marxist feminist suggests this serves the needs of capitalism as this ‘free labour’ which allows finances to be focused on the wider economy and increases consumption of goods and services by families

Question 3

Why do women do more?

Answer 3

-Gender pay gap- when deciding on cutting down hours in employment, men will earn more and therefore women are more likely to reduce hours in work
-2019 Labour Force Survey= 3 in 10 women reduce working hours in comparison to 1 in 20 men for childcare provision

Question 4

Feminism of domestic labour

Answer 4

-Oakely= women’s dual burden in her study of conventional family
-Delphy and Leonard= unpaid labour produced by women was a form of oppression that served the needs of men

Question 5

Evaluations of domestic labour

Answer 5

-Other factors contribute to variations on amount of unpaid labour completed by men and women, e.g, social class
-Kan and Laurie= amounts of unpaid labour often reliant upon level of education of women compared with their partners
-Crompton and Lynette= income level of women also indicates level of unpaid labour men and women will perform

Question 6

Who performs emotional labour?

Answer 6

-Duncombe and Marsden= emotional work of looking after family often falls onto women
-Men were focused on their role as provider and didn’t openly express emotions for their partners and children
-Women left with an emotional burden as well as a ‘triple shift’

Question 7

Parsons’ Sex Role Theory

Answer 7

-Emotional support became part of the expressive role- supporting and nurturing the development of children’s intellectual and emotional needs

Question 8

Theoretical perspectives on emotional work

Answer 8

-Ansley= women absorb the anger and frustrations of men as part of their duty to provide emotional stability= cushioning effect
-Zaretsky= family acts as a safe haven for men- refreshing and replenishing them through emotional support
-Duncombe and Marsden= emotional burden on women left them feeling neglected

Question 9

Has emotional labour changed?

Answer 9

-Beck= changes in society have led to a more negotiated family that meets the needs of partners
-Hochschild= emotional support required due to alienation in work is spreading beyond the family- family can no longer support the needs of individuals

Question 10

Changing masculinities

Answer 10

-Emergence of ‘new man’= increased emotional labour of men
-Miller= men are taking a greater role in the emotional development of their children
-Strains of paid employment and pressures of hegemonic masculinity led males to conform to traditional gender stereotypes

Question 11

Evaluations of emotional labour

Answer 11

-Links to ‘crisis of masculinity’ and ‘toxic masculinity’
-Beck= uncertainty of modern employment has led to more men defining themselves in the role of a father than by their occupation
-More women petitioning for divorce demonstrates an unhappiness with men’s involvement in emotional labour

Question 12

Gender roles

Answer 12

-Conjugal roles= roles taken on by male and female partners in a relationship
-Segregated= males and females take on different and separate roles within the family
-Joint/integrated= males and females split these roles more equally often having interchanging roles, such as childcare and housework

Question 13

Movement towards equality

Answer 13

-Gershunny= suggests there’s been a movement towards equality but males still ‘lag behind’ when it comes to housework
-Tasks often split into gender domains, with men more likely to transport children and women more likely to be involved with in home-based activities

Question 14

Why has housework become more equal?

Answer 14

-Increased female employment
-Technological advances- Silver and Schor= examined advances in labour-saving devices compared with previous generations- e.g, vacuum cleaners

Question 15

Has domestic labour become more equal?

Answer 15

-Knudsen and Waerness= found most work was completed by women in the household
-Food Standards Agency (2007)= 77% of women take responsibility for food shopping in the home

Question 16

Evaluations of changing gender roles

Answer 16

-Clear that domestic labour is still unequal- however gap is closing, especially for women with higher status jobs than partners
-Social Attitudes Survey (2013)= some tasks more likely to be done equally such as cooking and shopping but rarely by the man alone
-DIY= still in male domain, whilst laundry and cleaning still in female domain

Question 17

Domestic violence

Answer 17

-Sexual violence
-Physical violence
-Psychological violence
-Financial violence

Question 18

Explanation of domestic violence

Answer 18

-Hostility in relationships can lead to domestic violence due to the increased strain on everyday lives
-Coercive partners can control and manipulate people for many years without facing any form of sanction for their behaviours

Question 19

Dobash and Dobash

Answer 19

-Men look to assert their patriarchal control over women’s behaviours- through physical force, financial control or psychological means

Question 20

Psychological explanations

Answer 20

-Gillingan= domestic violence stems from feelings of inadequacy brought about a man’s inability to provide for his family
-Threats to mantel of provider= particularly through women’s employment

Question 21

Feminist approaches to domestic violence

Answer 21

-Men need to exert power over women that offer a challenge to male expectations
-Marxist-feminists= women absorb the anger of workers

Question 22

Domestic violence and policies

Answer 22

-Removal or marital rape exclusion clause 1991
-Ease of divorce from 1969 onwards
-Proposed Domestic Abuse Bill 2019

Question 23

Financial decision-making

Answer 23

-Hardill et al= dual earner households, men are still most likely to influence financial decision-making
-Pahl= growth of separate finances for men and women compared with earlier research that suggested male-dominated pooling was most common

Question 24

Child-rearing

Answer 24

-Treas and Tao found 75% of couples made joint decisions on bringing up children
-Women more likely to reduce employment to fit in with demands of childcare
-Gatrell= women’s financial power reduced after having children

Question 25

Housing

Answer 25

-Pahl= the higher financial status of men means they are more dominant in decisions on housing purchases
-Edgell= women likely to make decisions about smaller home purchases such as furnishings and decoration

Question 26

Evaluations of decision making

Answer 26

-Men have more financial power than women are are less likely to face reductions due to childcare responsibility