Gender Roles, Domestic Labour , Power Relationships

Question 1

Sexual division of labour

Answer 1

Difference between the roles of men and women within them family. Then being the breadwinners and women completing housework, emotional work and childcare.
GERSHUNY - families in which the wife works full time , husbands carry out more domestic labour

Question 2

Symmetrical family

Answer 2

When a family has equality of power relations and responsibilities

Question 3

Joint conjugal roles

Answer 3

When a couple share all duties and responsibilities of the relationship and household

Question 4

Triple shift

Answer 4

Green 1996: unequal leisure time for women who have a break from both paid and unpaid house work
Term to explain women’s responsibility of being in paid employment, domestic labour and emotional work

Question 5

March of progess

Answer 5

Modern couples have abandoned old fashioned and unequal marital roles and now have joint conjugal roles which was shaped by four major social changes in the 60s and 70s :

• slum clearance programmes which relocated many working class families to council estates
• greater educational and job opportunities resulted in greater geographical mobility
• women went out to work in greater number and made a significant economic contribution to the standard of living
• dual career symmetrical families could now afford to buy goods and labour saving devices

Question 6

Marxist feminism

Answer 6

Sees capitalism affecting women as well as patriarchy
Sees gender as constructed
And draws attention to the ‘dual burden’ women face under both capitalism and patriarchy - women must provide emotional stability for their husbands who suffer under capitalism.

Question 7

Functionalism

Answer 7

Does not accept the sex/gender distinction.

Believe that gendered roles are grounded in biological differences between males and females

Question 8

Parsons

Answer 8

Men’s and women’s roles are necessary within the family for it to perform its two main functions: socialisation and adult stabilisation
A mans roles as the breadwinner is instrumental
A woman’s role is expressive

Question 9

Feminism

Answer 9

Gendered differences are a product of the patriarchy.
Feminine characterises are assumed to be lesser than masculine thereby creating a social system in which women are devalued and oppressed

Question 10

Murray

Answer 10

Women are inherently more inclined to be emotive and caring

If the nuclear family is a natural form of society, so must be the gender divisions

Question 11

Radical feminists

Answer 11

Domestic gender roles don’t just socialise boys and girls differently but are specifically created by men, for men

Question 12

Delphy (feminism)

Answer 12

Reproduction of gender roles is in the oppression and exploitation of women.

Question 13

Duncombe and Marsden

Answer 13

Many women have now moved into the workplace heightening their oppression.
They also perform a ‘triple shift’

Question 14

Beck

Answer 14

Men now define their identity based on their status as a father, rather than by their career.
ONS - increased by 30,000 between 2002 and 2012 of the number of men who fit into this category

Question 15

Househusband

Answer 15

A man who performs tasks traditionally viewed as feminine

However.. mothers still provide 74% of all childcare time

Question 16

Power-radical feminists

Answer 16

Men maintain control of the family deliberately through enforcing female submissiveness

Question 17

Pahl

Answer 17

Men continued to maintain control of financial expenditure, even within families were both partners were earning
Financial power can allow for a significant level of control

Question 18

ONS- domestic abus e

Answer 18

1.2 million experienced domestic abuse, in comparison to 700,000 men

Question 19

Radical feminists argue what about domestic abuse

Answer 19

It is used as a tool employed by men to assert and maintain their power over women

Question 20

Dobash and Dobash

Answer 20

Draws attention to issues when studying domestic abuse : underreported and hard to fine
Masculinity may deter men from reporting incidents .

Question 21

Elizabeth Bott 1957

Answer 21

Working class couples in the 1950: are more likely to organise their domestic labour along segregated lines- men being breadwinners and women taking responsibility of housework and childcare

Middle class couples had joint conjugal roles and were more likely to share house work

Question 22

Ann Oakley

Answer 22

Critical of young and Wilmott cause they don’t distinguish between childcare tasks and responsibilities l. Husbands saw housework and childcare as “her work” rather than a joint chore

Question 23

The dual burden - ferri smith

Answer 23

Surveyed 1589 families in which both mothers and fathers worked and they found that just 4% of fathers equally shared childcare responsibilities

Question 24

Distribution of domestic labour

Answer 24

Craig 2007 found that women do between one third and half more housework than men and this inequality begins when a couple move in together

Question 25

Distribution of domestic labour : Ben Galim and Thompson

Answer 25

Challenges wilmott and young’s findings and found that 8/10 married women did more housework than men

Question 26

Decision making : Edgell

Answer 26

Study of professional couples found that very important decisions were either taken by the father alone or taken jointly and important decisions are either or seldom by the wife alone