Sociology Familes And Households: Couples And Children

Question 1

Domestic division of Labour:
Instrumental & expressive roles

Answer 1

Parsons
-the husband has the instrumental role e.g breadwinner
-the wife has the expressive role e.g primary socialisation and emotional needs e.g homemaker

Question 2

Domestic division of Labour:
Critique of parsons
(Family)

Answer 2

Young and willmott argue men are now taking greater share in domestic tasks and more wives earing wages

Question 3

Domestic division of Labour:
Joint and segregated conjugal roles

Answer 3

Bott
Segregated conjugal roles-
Where the couple have separated roles
Joint conjugal roles-
Share tasks such as house work and child care

Question 4

Domestic division of Labour:
The symmetrical family

Answer 4

Young & willmott
-Belive it’s becoming more even between men and women ‘March of progress’
-in their study they found symmetrical family’s were found with younger couples

Question 5

Symmetrical family:
Critique of Young & willmott

Answer 5

Oakley belive that they’re claims are exaggerated. They found husbands help their wives once a week with simple tasks that didn’t convince Oakley

Question 6

Domestic division of Labour:
A feminist view on housework

Answer 6

Oakley
-Oakley found husbands help in the home but no where near symmetrical
-only 15% of husbands have a hight level of participation in house work
-husbands more likely to share in childcare as it’s more pleasurable

Question 7

Are couples becoming more equal:
The March of progress veiw

Answer 7

-men are becoming more involved in housework and childcare
Gershuny
argues women working full time has lead to a more equal division of Labour

Question 8

Decision making in households:
Money management

Answer 8

Pahl and volger
identified two types of money control:
allowance- where men give they’re wives an allowance of which they budget to meet the family’s needs
Pooling- both partners have access to income and joint responsibility for expenditure

Question 9

Decision making in couples
(Not money wise)

Answer 9

Edgell found:
Very important decisions-
Involving finance or moving house was by husband or final word by husband
Important decisions-
Children’s education or holidays were taken jointly or wife alone
Less important decisions-
Home decor or child’s cloths were made by the wife

Question 10

Childhood:
Reasons for changes in the position of children

Answer 10

-child labour laws
-child protection
-compulsory schooling

Question 11

Childhood:
Has the position of the child improved?
Child centred

Answer 11

March of progress veiw
-by 21st birthday costs parents over £227,000
-children are seen and heard unlike in the Victorian era
-so is society e.g media designed for children

Question 12

Childhood:
Disappearance of childhood

Answer 12

Postman
-trend of adults and children same rights
-children committing ‘adult’ crimes
-children and adults used to be separated through reading to access knowledge
-TV blurs adulthood and childhood by destroying information hierarchy
-no skill needed to access tv

Question 13

Childhood:
Control over children’s space

Answer 13

-children’s movement is highly regulated
-e.g children may not be allowed in shops or are only allowed to play in certain areas

Question 14

Childhood:
Controls over children’s time

Answer 14

-adults control children’s daily routines
-when they get up,sleep,come home ect
-adults also control the speed of which a child ‘grows up’
-e.g defining if a child is too old or too young

Question 15

Childhood:
Control over children’s bodies

Answer 15

-adults have control over children’s bodies
-e.g what they wear
-how they’re touched
e.g being washed
-or disciplined by smacking
-restrict ways e.g not allowed to pick nose

Question 16

Domestic Violence:
Radical feminist explanation

Answer 16

-due to patriarchy
-marriage is a key institution in women’s oppression
-men dominate women with the threat or domestic violence
-male domination of state helps the reluctance of police

Question 17

Domestic violence:
Radical feminist critique

Answer 17

Elliot
-not all men benefit from domestic violence and not all men are aggressive
-fail to explain female violence like child abuse
-also not all women have an equal risk

Question 18

Domestic violence:
Materialist explanation

Answer 18

Pickett
-Economic and material factors such as inequalities in housing or income
-those that experience these inequalities are under more stress e.g overcrowding
-this increases risk of conflict

Question 19

Domestic violence:
Materialist explanation
Critique

Answer 19

-doesn’t include why women are more likely then men to be main victims

Question 20

Division of Labour:
Emotional work

Answer 20

Hochschild
-women deal with managing emotions and feeling of family members such as squabbles
-leads to triple shift
-housework,paid work and emotion work

Question 21

Domestic violence:
Patterns

Answer 21

-it’s not random but follows patterns
-men violent against women
-intimate violence such as:
-partner abuse, family abuse, sexual assault and stalking

Question 22

Couples:
Personal life perspective

Answer 22

Smart
-some couples don’t see one partner controlling the money as a sign of inequality
-e.g same sex couples do not attach importance to who controls the money
-this could be due to no history of heterosexual that see money as power