New Right Theory Of Gender Inequality

Question 1

What are the four explanations of gender inequality?

Answer 1

1. Single mothers are unable to socialise their children into shared values
2. Matriarchal households encourage criminal behaviour
3. Women are genetically designed to be care givers and should feel privileged to have this role
4. A women’s role in the family is vital to a smooth running society

Question 2

Who said single mothers are unable to socialise their children into shared values?

Answer 2

• Murray

Question 3

Who said matriarchal households encourage criminal behaviour?

Answer 3

• Dennis and Erdos

Question 4

Who said women are genetically designed to be caregivers and should feel privileged to have this role?

Answer 4

• Schlafly

Question 5

Who said a women’s role in the family is vital to a smooth running society?

Answer 5

• supported by Thatcher

Question 6

What did Murray say?

Answer 6

• differences in gender experiences are as a result of biological and innate differences
• advocates the nuclear family and blames single parent mothers and says it is functional for women to fulfil a housewife role
• rising birth rates outside or marriage, crime and youth unemployment were signs that irresponsible attitudes in the underclass were affecting certain neighbourhoods

Question 7

What did Dennis and Erdos say?

Answer 7

• matriarchal backgrounds (where women are the dominant or central figures in the family and social life) undermine traditional family structures
• such structures prioritise male authority and stable, two parent families which they see as the foundation of social order and the proper upbringing of children
• single mother households lead to various social problems including weakened role of men, impact on children and social and moral decline

Question 8

What did Schlafly say?

Answer 8

• women should not be fighting to go to work
• the flight from home is a flight from oneself (women’s duty to be a wife and is critical of feminism)

Question 9

What did Thatcher support?

Answer 9

• upheld traditional values with emphasis on family and support for domestic roles
• policies had a mixed effect on women due to her emphasis on individual, responsibility and a reduced welfare state which hit working class women the hardest and did not promote policies to address wage inequality or childcare as she viewed these through the lens of broader economic and individual responsibility than gender specific issues