power and control-family equality Flashcards
What is meant by the domestic division of labour
patterns in organization of tasks done in the household, often organized based on gender. debate amongst sociologists whether DDL is still present in society or if there’s more equality
what is meant by the march of progress?
some sociologists claim families are becoming more egalitarian
How do Young and Willmott support the march of progress?
compared research to previous research of w/c families in 1950s
72% of men did housework other than just washing up
found that symmetry was more common amongst younger affluent couples
rise in symmetry a result of: women’s changing position, geographical mobility etc.
How does Bott support the march of progress?
conjugal roles- roles within marriage
segregated conjugal roles- separate housewife and breadwinner
joint conjugal roles- sharing responsibilities
Bott claims since 70’s conjugal roles are much more common amongst m/c
Who did Van Every research and what can we conclude?
interviewed heterosexual married women
found that different couples each have different outlooks example- some couples took last name, some didn’t. Different household tasks are shared for different reasons, example- someone who likes cooking will cook but this is disregarded as women doing all the cooking
How can we challenge Van Every’s research and conclusions?
feminists would disagree as they believe household tasks are shared based on gender stereotypes and not enjoyment.
What does Kan conclude about men’s involvement in domestic work and childcare?
time spent by British men on domestic tasks increased from 90 mins per day in 60s to 140 mins per day 2004
more equal male and female wages means more equal domestic divison of labour
How do Vincent and Ball challenge Kan’s research?
men are more likely to get involved in childcare than housework- “Background fathers”
fact men helped out w childcare was more about their relationship w their partners rather than their responsibilities as fathers. Most men influenced by “Provider ideology”
What’s meant by the triple shift?
women today have more responsibility for paid work, domestic work and emotion work
How does Oakley challenge the march of progress?
claims only 15% of men in her study had a high participation in housework
25% had high participation in childcare
triple shift
What does Craig say to challenge the march of progress?
women more housework than men. This inequality begins when couples move in together.
calls this aspect of domestic inequality “Partnership penalty”
when couples marry, wife’s domestic labour rises whilst husband does less work.
“Mother penalty”- decision to have a baby results in mother being financially worse off across life.
What is the cultural explanation that challenges the march of progress?
equality will be achieved only when norms about gender roles change. This would involve changes in men’s and women’s attitudes, values and expectations
How does Gershuny’s research support the cultural explanation?
couples whose parents had a more equal relationship are more likely to share housework equally themselves
How does Mn Yee Kan’s research support the cultural explanation?
younger men do more domestic work. According to future foundation, men claimed to do more housework than father and women less than mother.
What is the material explanation that challenges the march of progress?
when women join the labour force and earn as much as their partners, we would then expect to see men and women doing more equal amounts of domestic work
What does Kan conclude that supports the material explanation?
every 10k a year more a women makes, she does 2 hours less house work per week
What does Sullivan say that supports the material explanation?
working fulltime rather than parttime makes the biggest difference in terms of how much domestic work each partner does.
How does Dunne and gender scripts challenge the triple shift?
lesbian couples don’t follow normative hetro “Gender scripts”
if in a lesbian couple, according to Dunne, then domestic work, emotion work and labour work are not all channelled onto one women
work split amongst women.
How does Edgell’s findings challenge the march of progress?
interviewed husbands and wives about who makes decisions and asked them which they thought were most important
men more likely to make the “Less frequent more important” decisions whereas women make he “more frequent less important” decisions
How does Pahl and Vogler’s research challenge the march of progress?
interviewed both husbands and wives about money organization and identified that even when joint accounts were had, men took control of this and were more likely to have major financial decisions
Why does Smart argue we need to look at money from a personal life perspective?
look at what it means to the individuals involved.
found that same sex couples are less likely to put as much emphasis on financial power as they don’t enter relationships seeing money as a source of power that heterosexual couples historically did.
Why would a functionalist and a feminist differ on their views of emotion work?
functionalist- emotion work falls under socialisation of young, therefore good
feminist- would say that this level of work is a consequence of patriarchal oppression
How can we add domestic violence to this argument?
marxists feminists- aused by punch bag theory
radical- women need to change to all female households to eliminate domestic violence
liberal- attitudes towards housework caused by socialisation issues
