Sociology Familes And Households: Couples And Children Flashcards
Domestic division of Labour:
Instrumental & expressive roles
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
Domestic division of Labour:
Critique of parsons
(Family)
Young and willmott argue men are now taking greater share in domestic tasks and more wives earing wages
Domestic division of Labour:
Joint and segregated conjugal roles
Bott
Segregated conjugal roles-
Where the couple have separated roles
Joint conjugal roles-
Share tasks such as house work and child care
Domestic division of Labour:
The symmetrical family
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
Symmetrical family:
Critique of Young & willmott
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
Domestic division of Labour:
A feminist view on housework
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
Are couples becoming more equal:
The March of progress veiw
-men are becoming more involved in housework and childcare
Gershuny
argues women working full time has lead to a more equal division of Labour
Decision making in households:
Money management
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
Decision making in couples
(Not money wise)
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
Childhood:
Reasons for changes in the position of children
-child labour laws
-child protection
-compulsory schooling
Childhood:
Has the position of the child improved?
Child centred
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
Childhood:
Disappearance of childhood
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
Childhood:
Control over children’s space
-children’s movement is highly regulated
-e.g children may not be allowed in shops or are only allowed to play in certain areas
Childhood:
Controls over children’s time
-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
Childhood:
Control over children’s bodies
-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
Domestic Violence:
Radical feminist explanation
-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
Domestic violence:
Radical feminist critique
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
Domestic violence:
Materialist explanation
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
Domestic violence:
Materialist explanation
Critique
-doesn’t include why women are more likely then men to be main victims
Division of Labour:
Emotional work
Hochschild
-women deal with managing emotions and feeling of family members such as squabbles
-leads to triple shift
-housework,paid work and emotion work
Domestic violence:
Patterns
-it’s not random but follows patterns
-men violent against women
-intimate violence such as:
-partner abuse, family abuse, sexual assault and stalking
Couples:
Personal life perspective
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
