Gender Roles, Domestic Labour and Power Relationships in the Contemporary Family

Question 1

What are segregated conjugal roles?

Answer 1

Where the roles of men and women are separate

Question 2

What are joint conjugal roles?

Answer 2

Where the roles of men and women are shared and there is greater equality

Question 3

How are segregated conjugal roles viewed by functionalists?

Answer 3

Might view them as something expected to be part of the family

See women as having expressive role and man having instrumental

Question 4

How are segregated conjugal roles viewed by the new right?

Answer 4

Might view them as something part of the family as new right favour conservative values which include traditional values

Men being breadwinner and women homemaker

Question 5

How are segregated conjugal roles viewed by Marxist feminists?

Answer 5

Might view them as potentially being the cause of women oppression and would prefer joint conjugal roles rather than women being housewives

‘slaves of the wage slaves’ and ‘takers of shit’

Question 6

How are segregated conjugal roles viewed by radical feminists?

Answer 6

Might view them as being patriarchal as women should have the same equal opportunity of going to work as men and men should of doing housework

Question 7

How are joint conjugal roles viewed by the new right?

Answer 7

Might view them as something unnatural as they believe couples should have the traditional roles of the family

Question 8

How are joint conjugal roles viewed by liberal feminists?

Answer 8

Might view them as a good thing as liberal feminists campaign for the equality of both men and women

Therefore women should have same equal opportunities as men

Question 9

How are joint conjugal roles viewed by postmodernists?

Answer 9

Might view them as something that is a choice of each individual family as they believe family life is characterised by choice, fluidity and change

Question 10

Why are more women in paid employment?

Answer 10

Women have become more independent, giving themselves more status and freedom inside and outside the family

Paid work gives women more power

Question 11

How might liberal feminists view more women in paid work?

Answer 11

Would view it as a good thing as they campaign for equality of both men and women and therefore would want equality in work

Question 12

What is a dual-earner family?

Answer 12

Where both partners are in paid work

Question 13

Why might dual-earner families be more democratic?

Answer 13

Both partners bring in income so they will want access to the money that have earned and have a say in how its spent

Question 14

Why might postmodernists consider dual-earner families to be less stable?

Answer 14

Society has become fragmented and individuals are now making their own choices about what they should choose to believe in, how to spend money etc.

If both partners aren’t agreeing on how money is spent they may split up

Question 15

Why might radical feminists argue women are still disadvantaged in dual-earner families?

Answer 15

Radical feminists see society as being patriarchal and most men will earn more money than women and therefore the men will have a bigger say in how money is spent

Question 16

What did Young and Willmott mean by a symmetrical family?

Answer 16

Where gender roles in the family have become more equal in a modern society

Young and Willmott found more couples were sharing domestic tasks

Question 17

Why might the family be becoming more symmetrical?

Answer 17

Women are now also in paid work and they don’t have time to do all the housework so now men have to help more with domestic tasks

Question 18

Why does feminist Oakley criticise the symmetrical family?

Answer 18

They assume that a man doing one household task a week is evidence of equality

Oakley argues that men ‘help out’ - they do very little housework and only do ‘female’ jobs when women aren’t around

Question 19

Why do Marxists argue the commercialisation of housework leads to social class differences in family life?

Answer 19

Equality is down to economic capital, it depends on how much money women earn and if women earn enough money they can afford cleaners

If not then women still end up doing the housework themselves

Question 20

Why do Marxists argue commercialisation of housework benefits capitalism?

Answer 20

Women are spending money on products that are giving the RC profit and continuing to exploit the SC who are making the profit

Question 21

What does Oakley mean by the dual burden?

Answer 21

Where women have to balance paid work and the housework

Question 22

Why are women more likely to have a dual burden?

Answer 22

It may be the result of gender stereotypes which reinforces the gender stereotype that housework is ‘women’s work’

Question 23

Why does the dual burden mean women’s paid work is part-time?

Answer 23

They will need to make sure they have enough time to do the housework and if they worked full time they may not be able to get all the housework done

Question 24

How is the dual burden viewed by radical feminists?

Answer 24

View it as something that should be avoided as they believe that society is patriarchal and therefore men should also be experiencing the dual burden

Question 25

How is the dual burden viewed by the new right?

Answer 25

View it as something expected because women’s role is to perform the expressive role and do the housework

However, they wouldn’t agree with women going to work because its the man’s job

Question 26

What did Duncombe and Marsden mean by emotion work?

Answer 26

Managing feelings of family members - trying to keep everyone happy

Question 27

Why are women more likely to perform emotion work than men?

Answer 27

Men tend to offer little or no support for family members feelings and therefore in most families, emotion work is solely the woman’s responsibility

Question 28

What is the triple shift?

Answer 28

Where women have to do paid work, housework and emotion work

Question 29

Why does the triple shift suggest domestic labour isn’t equal?

Answer 29

Women are doing a lot of the hard work in the family, making sure the house is clean and presentable and everyone is emotionally stable as well as in paid work

Men are only going out to work and not helping with anything else

Question 30

How would the triple shift be viewed by functionalists?

Answer 30

Viewed as something expected of women because they were meant to perform the expressive role

Wouldn’t agree with women in paid work as that’s the mans responsibility

Question 31

How would the triple shift be viewed by radical feminists?

Answer 31

Viewed as part of society, would have a negative view on it as they believe men are the enemy and they tend not to help with anything stereotypically female

Question 32

How would the triple shift be viewed by Marxist feminists?

Answer 32

Viewed as the possible causes of women’s oppression because women are ‘slaves of the wage slaves’ by having to do all the housework and emotion work

Question 33

What is a pooling system of money management?

Answer 33

When both partners share their income

e.g. joint bank account with equal access to money

Question 34

How might pooling systems be viewed by liberal feminists?

Answer 34

Would agree with pooling system of money management as they believe both partners should have access to the money they earn and if they share it they should be able to use it equally

Question 35

Why might decision making in dual-earner families be more equal?

Answer 35

Both partners earn money for their household, making the decision more equal as they both make money and should both decide together where that money goes

Question 36

Why is domestic violence a gendered crime?

Answer 36

Deeply rooted in the societal inequality between men and women

Form of gender-based violence, violence “directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects disproportionately”

Question 37

How would domestic violence be viewed by radical feminists?

Answer 37

Viewed as something that could be inevitable when living with a male as men are the enemy and women are more likely to experience sexual “terrorism” at home and work than men

Question 38

How would domestic violence be viewed by Marxist feminists?

Answer 38

Viewed as physical frustrations women take from men as the “takers of shit” and that the woman’s job in the family shouldn’t be to keep the capitalist system going by absorbing the males frustrations

Question 39

How does domestic violence demonstrate that power within relationships isn’t equal?

Answer 39

Tends to be directed towards women and men aren’t the victims of domestic violence as often as women

Suggests men tend to hold majority of the power within a relationship

Question 40

How does domestic violence criticise views of the family held by functionalists?

Answer 40

Functionalists argue the family performs many functions which benefit the individual and the family such as emotional support

If an individual is experiencing domestic violence within the family then the individual isn’t going to be able to provide emotional support and will have to go outside the family

Question 41

How does domestic violence criticise views of the family held by the new right?

Answer 41

New right argue traditional nuclear family is both desirable and positive for both individuals and wider society

Domestic violence within the family isn’t a positive experience of the individual