Sociology-Families and Households-Couples

Question 1

What does the domestic division of labour refer to?

Answer 1

The roles that men and women play in relation to housework, childcare and paid work

Question 2

What are the roles like in the traditional nuclear family?

Answer 2

The roles between husband and wife were segregated (separate and distinct from one another)

Question 3

What is Parsons (1955) functionalist model of the family?

Answer 3

Shows a clear division of labour between spouses, where the husband has an instrumental role, and the wife has an expressive role

Question 4

What is an instrumental role?

Answer 4

Geared towards achieving success at work, so he can provide for the family financially (breadwinner)

Question 5

What is an expressive role?

Answer 5

Geared towards primary socialisation of children and meeting family’s emotional needs (homemaker, full time housewife rather than wage earner)

Question 6

What does Parsons argue that the division of labour is based on?

Answer 6

Biological factors, which make women naturally suited to the nurturing role and men to the role of the provider and it is beneficial to both men and women, their children and society

Question 7

Who else holds this view?

Answer 7

Some conservative thinkers and politicians, known as the New Right

Question 8

What are criticisms for Parsons roles?

Answer 8

Young and Willmott 1962 argue men now take a greater share of domestic tasks and wives are becoming wage earners. Feminists reject the view that the division is natural and say it only benefits men

Question 9

How does Bott 1957 distinguish between two types of conjugal (within marriage) roles?

Answer 9

Segregated conjugal roles and joint conjugal roles

Question 10

What are segregated conjugal roles?

Answer 10

Where the couple have separate roles (male breadwinner and female housewife/carer) like Parsons roles. Leisure activities also tend to be separate

Question 11

What are joint conjugal roles?

Answer 11

Where the couple share tasks such as housework and childcare, and spend leisure time together

Question 12

What did Young and Willmott identify in their study of traditional working class extended families?

Answer 12

A pattern of segregated conjugal roles

Question 13

What sort of view do Young and Willmott take?

Answer 13

A march of progress view

Question 14

What is the march of progress view?

Answer 14

They see family life as gradually improving for all its members, becoming more equal and democratic, and there has been a long term trend away from segregated roles and towards joint roles, creating a symmetrical family

Question 15

What is the symmetrical family?

Answer 15

One in which the roles of husbands and wives, although not identical, are more much more similar

Question 16

What is evidence for the symmetrical family?

Answer 16

Women now go out to work, though it may be part time. Men now help with housework and childcare. Couples now spend leisure time together instead of separately with work friends or female relatives

Question 17

Where did Young and Willmott find the symmetrical more evident?

Answer 17

Among younger couples, those who are geographically and socially isolated, and the more affluent

Question 18

What do Young and Willmott say caused the symmetrical family?

Answer 18

Changes in women’s position, geographical mobility, new technology and higher standards of living

Question 19

What do feminists say about the march of progress view?

Answer 19

They reject this view, arguing that little has changed. Men and women remain unequal within the family and women still do most of the housework

Question 20

Where do feminists say that this inequality stems from?

Answer 20

The fact that family and society are patriarchal. Women occupy a subordinate and dependent role within the family and in wider society

Question 21

What does Oakley 1974 say about the march of progress?

Answer 21

March of progress is exaggerated, though husbands may help their wives at least once a week, it may include just taking the children for a walk or making breakfast on occasion, which isn’t evidence of symmetry

Question 22

What did Oakley find in her own research?

Answer 22

only 15% of husbands had high level of participation in housework and 25% in childcare

Question 23

What did Boulton 1983 find?

Answer 23

Although fathers may help by performing specific childcare tasks, its usually mothers who take responsibilities for the child’s security and well being and fewer than 20% had a major role in childcare

Question 24

What did Warde an Hetherington find in the 1990s?

Answer 24

Found sex typing of domestic tasks remained strong eg wives were 30 times more likely to be the last person to have done the washing, and husbands were 4 times more likely to have been the last person to wash the car-Men take on female tasks only when wife isn’t there, and also slight change of attitude among younger men

Question 25

What did Gershuny 1994 find relating to the impact of paid work?

Answer 25

Women working full time is leading to a more equal division of labour at home and used time studies to show these women did less domestic work than other women

Question 26

What did Sullivan 2000 find?

Answer 26

Analysis of nationally representative data in 1975, 1987 and 1997 found trend towards women doing a smaller share of domestic work and men doing more, and an increase in couples with an equal division of labour where men also participated in traditional ‘women’s’ tasks

Question 27

What do these trends of a more equal division of labour reflect?

Answer 27

A change in attitudes to the traditional division of labour

Question 28

What is an example of these changing attitudes?

Answer 28

British Social Attitudes Survey 2013 which found a fall in number of people who thought it was the man’s job to earn money and women’s job to look after home and family. About 45% agreed with this in 1984, but roughly 12% in 2012

Question 29

What is the feminists view on the impact of paid work?

Answer 29

Hasn’t led to greater equality in the division of domestic labour, and there is little sign of the ‘new man’ who does equal shares of housework and childcare, and so women now carry a dual burden of paid work and domestic work

Question 30

What did the British Social Attitudes survey show for how much work men do?

Answer 30

In 2012, men did on average 8 hours of housework each week, but women did 13. Men spent 10 hours on caring for family members, but women spent 23 hours. women did twice as much as men, and 60% of women thought this was unjust as they did more than their fair share

Question 31

What did the British Social Attitudes survey show for who does what job?

Answer 31

Couples still divided household tasks due to traditional gender roles, the same as in 1994(women more likely to do laundry, care for sick family, shop, clean cook and men more likely to do repairs around the house)

Question 32

What does Allan 1985 argue?

Answer 32

Women’s tasks are less intrinsically pleasing, and this can’t be shown in the survey

Question 33

Who supports Boulton’s 1983 view?

Answer 33

Ferri and Smith 1996, Dex and Ward 2007, and Braun, Vincent and Ball 2011

Question 34

What did Ferri and Smith 1996 find?

Answer 34

In a study, 4% of fathers took responsibility for childcare

Question 35

What did Dex and Ward 2007 find?

Answer 35

In a study, though 78% played with their children and claimed to have high levels of involvement, only 1% of fathers took the main responsibility for caring for a sick child

Question 36

What did Braun, Vincent and Ball 2011 find?

Answer 36

3 out of 70 families studied had the father as the main carer, most were just ‘background parents’ with a provider ideology

Question 37

What idea did Hochschild 2013 come up with, explaining responsibility for children?

Answer 37

Emotion work, where women are responsible for family members emotions eg jealousies and arguments between siblings, and ensure everyone is happy and controlling their own emotions

Question 38

What do Duncombe and Marsden 1995 say that emotion work creates?

Answer 38

A triple shift, of housework, paid work and emotion work

Question 39

What does Sourtherton 2011, also argue is up to mothers?

Answer 39

Responsibility of coordinating, scheduling and managing ‘quality time’ together

Question 40

Why has coordinating, scheduling and managing quality time become difficult in todays society?

Answer 40

Emergence of the 24/7 society and flexible working patterns, which lead to people’s time being more fragmented and ‘de-routinised’

Question 41

What does Southerton also note about leisure time?

Answer 41

It is unequal and different between men and women, as men have more consolidated blocks of uninterrupted leisure time, whereas women’s leisure time is often punctuated by child care and have to multi task, indicating their dual burden

Question 42

Who identified two explanations for the gender division of labour?

Answer 42

Crompton and Lyonette 2008

Question 43

What are their two explanations?

Answer 43

The cultural/ideological explanation of inequality and the material/economic explanation of inequality

Question 44

What is the cultural or ideological explanation of inequality?

Answer 44

The division of labour is determined by patriarchal norms and values that shape the gender roles in our culture. Women perform more domestic labour simply because that is what society expects them to do and has socialised them to do

Question 45

What is the material or economic explanation of inequality?

Answer 45

The fact that women generally earn less than men means it is economically rational for women to do more of the housework and childcare while men spend more of their time earning money

Question 46

According to the cultural explanation, when will equality be achieved?

Answer 46

When norms about gender roles change, which would involve changes in men and women’s attitudes, values, expectations, role models and socialisation

Question 47

Who supports/acts as evidence for the cultural explanation?

Answer 47

Gershuny 1994, Man Yee Kan 2001, The British Social Attitudes survey 2013, and Dunne 1999

Question 48

What did Gershuny 1994 find?

Answer 48

Couples whose parents had a more equal relationship are more likely to share housework due to equally-parental role models, and social values are gradually adapting to women working, establishing a new norm of men doing domestic work

Question 49

What did Man Yee Kan 2001 find?

Answer 49

Younger men do more domestic work, suggesting a generational shift in behaviour as most men claimed they did more work than their father and most women claimed to do less work than their mother

Question 50

What did the British Social Attitudes survey 2013 find?

Answer 50

Less than 10% of under 35’s agreed with traditional division of labour, against 30% of over 65’s, indicating a long term change in norms, values and attitudes, reflecting changes in gender role socialisation of the young in favour of equality in relationships

Question 51

What did Dunne 1999 find?

Answer 51

Lesbian couples have a more symmetrical relationship as they are the same gender so decide themselves what jobs they will do, due to absence of traditional heterosexual ‘gender scripts’

Question 52

According to the material explanation, when will equality be achieved?

Answer 52

When women join the labour force and earn as much as their partners, therefore there will be an equal share of domestic tasks?

Question 53

Who supports the material explanation?

Answer 53

Kan, Arber and Ginn 1995, Ramos 2003 and Sullivan

Question 54

What did Kan find?

Answer 54

For every £10000 a year more a woman earns, she does two hours less housework per week

Question 55

What did Arber and Ginn 1995 find?

Answer 55

Better paid, middle class women are able to buy better products and services so they have to spend less time on housework and child care tasks

Question 56

What did Ramos 2003 find?

Answer 56

Women in full-time employment with a husband who is unemployed do the same amount of domestic work

Question 57

What did Sullivan find?

Answer 57

Working full time rather than part time makes the biggest difference in terms of how much domestic work each partner does as it brings women’s earnings much closer to those of their partners

Question 58

What does Crompton 1997 conclude?

Answer 58

There is no immediate prospect of a more equal division of labour if this depends on economic equality between the sexes

Question 59

What is the conclusion for equality in couples?

Answer 59

Evidence that women in paid work leads to a more equal division of labour though many feminists argue the extent of this is limited and women still have a dual or triple burden-the root of the problem is patriarchy

Question 60

What do Barrett and McIntosh note?

Answer 60

Men gain more from women’s domestic work than they give back in financial support, financial support is often unpredictable with strings attached, and men usually make the decisions about spending on important items

Question 61

What did Kempson 1994 find?

Answer 61

Among low income families, women denied their own needs, stopped going out and ate smaller portions or skipped meals in order to make ends meet

Question 62

How are women treated when their is an inequality in resources and decision-making?

Answer 62

They have no entitlement to a share of household resources and so sees anything she spends on herself as money that should have been spent on children or essentials. Even in households with adequate incomes, unequal sharing of resources can leave women in poverty

Question 63

What do Pahl and Vogler 1993 identify?

Answer 63

Two types of control over family income: Allowance system and pooling

Question 64

What is the allowance system?

Answer 64

Where men give their wives an allowance out of which they have to budget to meet the family’s needs, with the man retaining any extra income for himself

Question 65

What is pooling?

Answer 65

Where both partners have access to income and joint responsibility for expenditure; eg a joint bank account

Question 66

What is the most common form of money management today?

Answer 66

Pooling

Question 67

Does pooling indicate equality in decision making?

Answer 67

Although it seems like it would, where income is pooled and controlled by the husband, it tends to give men more power in major financial decisions, but not as much as in the allowance system

Question 68

What did Pahl and Vogler 2007 find about decision making?

Answer 68

Even where there was pooling, men usually made the major financial decisions

Question 69

What did Hardill 1997 find?

Answer 69

Study of 30 dual career professional couples found important decisions were made jointly or by husband alone, and his career normally took priority when making decisions about moving house for a new job

Question 70

What did Finch 1983 observe?

Answer 70

Women’s lives tend to be structured around their husband’s careers

Question 71

What did Edgell’s 1980 study of professional couples find?

Answer 71

Very important decisions (finance/job change/house move) made by husband or jointly with husband as final say, important decisions (holiday/children’s education) made together or by wife, and less important decisions (home decor/clothes/food purchases) made by wife

Question 72

Why does Edgell say the patterns for decision making exist?

Answer 72

Men are likely to take the decisions because they earn more. women usually earn less and are economically dependent on them, so have less say in decision making

Question 73

What did Laurie and Gershuny 200 find?

Answer 73

By 1995, 70% of couples said they had equal say in decisions, though high earning, well qualified professional women were more likely to have an equal say

Question 74

Who offers a material explanation of gender inequality in resources and decision making, as explained by Crompton and Lyonette?

Answer 74

Laurie and Gershuny

Question 75

Who offers a cultural explanation of gender inequality in resources and decision making, as explained by Crompton and Lyonette?

Answer 75

Feminists, who argue its due to a patriarchal society where the cultural definition of men as decision makers is deeply ingrained in men and women, and instilled through gender role socialisation. Until the definition is challenged, decision making will remain unequal

Question 76

What does Pahl note about the meaning of money?

Answer 76

Just pooling money doesn’t mean there is equality, you need to look at who controls the pooled money and whether each partner contributes equally

Question 77

What did Vogler et al find about the meaning of money?

Answer 77

Cohabiting couples were less likely to pool money, as they may wish to maintain independence, yet they are more likely to share domestic tasks equally

Question 78

What does Nyman 2003 note?

Answer 78

Money has no automatic, fixed or natural meaning and different couples can define it in different ways. These meanings can reflect the nature of the relationship

Question 79

What does the personal life perspective focus on, when talking about money?

Answer 79

The meanings couples give to who controls the money, and the meanings that money may have in relationships cannot be taken for granted

Question 80

What did Smart 2007 find?

Answer 80

Found some gay men and lesbians attached no importance to who controlled the money and were perfectly happy to leave this to their partners. They didn’t see control of money as meaning equality or inequality in a relationship

Question 81

What did Weeks et al 2001 find?

Answer 81

Typical pattern was pooling for household spending, and separate accounts for personal spending. Reflects a value of co-independence, where there is sharing but also a sense of independence, and this is more common in cohabiting couples, found by Vogler et al

Question 82

Why does Smart suggest there is greater freedom for same sex couples to do what suits them as a couple?

Answer 82

They don’t enter into relationships with historical, gendered, heterosexual baggage or cultural meanings around money, and so don’t see money as a source of power

Question 83

What is the Home Office 2013 definition of domestic violence and abuse?

Answer 83

Any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive or threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are or have been intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality

Question 84

What is a common view of domestic violence?

Answer 84

That is is the behaviour of a few disturbed or ‘sick’ individuals, and that its causes are psychological rather than social

Question 85

How have sociologists challenged this view?

Answer 85

By showing that domestic violence is far too widespread, and that domestic violence doesn’t occur randomly

Question 86

How is domestic violence too widespread?

Answer 86

Too widespread to be the work of a few disturbed individuals and Women’s Aid federation 2014 found domestic violence accounts for 1/6-1/4 of all recorded violent crime. Also Crime survey for England and Wales 2013 found 2 million people reported being victims of domestic abuse in the previous year

Question 87

How does domestic violence not occur randomly?

Answer 87

Follows particular social patterns that have social causes. Most obvious pattern is violence by men against womrn

Question 88

What did Coleman et al 2007 find to support the fact that domestic violence doesn’t occur randomly?

Answer 88

Women were more likely than me to have experienced ‘intimate violence’ across all four types of abuse (partner abuse, family abuse, sexual assault and stalking)

Question 89

What did Coleman and Osbourne 2010 find?

Answer 89

Two women a week, (or 1/3 of all female homicide victims) are killed by a partner or former partner

Question 90

What did Dobash and Dobash find?

Answer 90

Their research confirmed the pattern of men abusing women, and found violent incidents could be set off by what husband’s saw as a challenge to his authority eg wife asking why he was late home. Marriage legitimates violence against women by conferring power and authority on husbands, and dependency on wives

Question 91

What did the crime survey for England and Wales 2013 find about gender differences in domestic violence?

Answer 91

Although women are more likely to be victims, they found a relatively narrow gender gap of 7.3% women, compared to 5% men reporting domestic abuse in the previous year, however other studies show a wider gap

Question 92

What is a disadvantage of things such as the crime survey?

Answer 92

They just show how many victims, but don’t show anything about frequency, severity or effects of the abuse, which would show a very significant gender gap

Question 93

What did Walby and Allen 2004 find?

Answer 93

Women were more likely to be victims of multiple incidents of abuse and of sexual violence

Question 94

What did Ansara and Hindin 2011 find?

Answer 94

Women suffered more severe violence and control, with more serious psychological effects, and also found that women were much more likely than men to be fearful of their partners

Question 95

What did Dar 2013 point out?

Answer 95

Can be difficult to count separate domestic violence incidents, as abuse can be continuous or occur so often that victims can’t reliably count the instances

Question 96

What are two reasons why official domestic violence statistics understate the extent of the problem?

Answer 96

Victims may be unwilling to report it to the police, and police/prosecutors may be reluctant to investigate or prosecute cases reported to them

Question 97

What did Yearnshire 1997 find about the first reason, of victims being unwilling to report?

Answer 97

On average a woman suffers 35 assaults before making a report and domestic violence is the violent crime, least likely to be reported

Question 98

What does Dar argue about victims?

Answer 98

Victims of domestic violence are less likely than victims of other forms of violence to report the offence as they believe that it isn’t a matter for the police, or it is too trivial, or fear reprisals

Question 99

What did Cheal 1991 find about police and prosecutors in regards to domestic violence?

Answer 99

Reluctance to prosecute or investigate domestic violence is due to the fact that police and other state agencies aren’t prepared to become involved in the family

Question 100

What assumptions do the police and state agencies make about family life?

Answer 100

That it is a private sphere so access by state agencies should be limited, that its a good thing so state agencies neglect the ‘darker side’ of family life, and that individuals are free agents and so if women are suffering, they are free to leave

Question 101

Why isn’t it true that domestic violence victims are free agents?

Answer 101

Male violence is often coupled with male economic power: women are financially dependent and so are unable to leave. Also leaving doesn’t always solve the problem: Approximately 75% of women who are killed by their partners are murdered when they attempt to leave or after they have left an abusive relationship

Question 102

What does lack of action by police and prosecution mean?

Answer 102

It means that cases successfully prosecuted are only the tip of a much larger iceberg of abuse, eg during 2006-11 conviction rates stood at only 6.5% of incidents reported to the police

Question 103

What are the two explanations of domestic violence?

Answer 103

The radical feminist explanation (emphasises role of patriarchal ideas, cultural values and institutions) and the materialist explanation (emphasises economic factors such as lack of resources)

Question 104

What do feminists use as evidence of patriarchy?

Answer 104

Findings, such as those of Dobash and Dobash

Question 105

What do Millett and Firestone 1970 argue?

Answer 105

All societies have been founded on patriarchy and the key division in society is between men and women, where men are the enemy; oppressors and exploiters of women

Question 106

How do radical feminists see family and marriage?

Answer 106

As key institutions in patriarchal society and the main source of women’s oppression. Within family, men dominate through domestic violence or threat of it. Domestic violence is an inevitable feature of patriarchal society and serves to preserve the power that all men have over womenn

Question 107

How do radical feminists help explain why most domestic violence is committed by men?

Answer 107

Patriarchal society, they also give a sociological, rather than psychological explanation, by linking patterns of domestic violence to dominant social norms about marriage, and explain the reluctance of police and courts as the fact that they are male dominated

Question 108

Why does Faith Robertson Elliot 1996 reject the radical feminist view?

Answer 108

Rejects the radical feminist claim that all men benefit from violence against women, not all men are aggressive and most are opposed to domestic violence, but radical feminists ignore this

Question 109

What do radical feminists fail to explain?

Answer 109

Female violence, including child abuse by women, violence against male partners, and within lesbian relationships, (crime survey for England and Wales 2013 found 18% of men experienced domestic violence since turning 16)

Question 110

What do radical feminists wrongly assume?

Answer 110

Use concept of patriarchy to explain why women are most likely to be victims, but wrongly assume all women are equally at risk, and don’t explain which women are more at risk

Question 111

What social groups does the Office for National Statistics 2014 suggest are most at risk of domestic violence?

Answer 111

Young women, those in the lowest social class/living in deprived areas, those on low income/in financial difficulties, those living in shared/rented accommodation, those with high levels of alcohol/drug consumption, those with long term illness/disability

Question 112

What does the materialist explanation focus on?

Answer 112

Economic or material factors such as inequalities in income and housing to explain why some groups are more at risk than others

Question 113

What do Wilkinson and Pickett 2010 suggest?

Answer 113

Domestic violence as a result of stress on family members caused by social inequality

Question 114

What does inequality mean for families?

Answer 114

Some have fewer resources than others. Those on low incomes or in overcrowded accommodation are likely to have higher stress levels, reducing chances of maintaining stable and caring relationships, increasing risk of conflict/violence

Question 115

What is an example of how the materialist explanation can cause domestic violence?

Answer 115

Worries of money, jobs, housing may lead to domestic conflict due to anger, and lack of money, time restricts peoples social circle and reduces social support for those under stress

Question 116

What is an advantage of the materialist explanation?

Answer 116

Wilkinson and Pickett’s approach is useful to show how social inequality produces stress and triggers conflict/violence in families. Those in lower social classes face greater hardship/stress so explains the class division on domestic violence

Question 117

What is a disadvantage to the materialist explanation?

Answer 117

Unlike the radical feminist approach, Wilkinson and Pickett don’t explain the gender differences?

Question 118

How do marxist feminists support the materialist explanation?

Answer 118

See inequality as cause, eg Ansley 1972 describes wives as ‘takers of shit’ and that domestic violence is product of capitalism as male workers are exploited at work and take out stress on their wives, which explains male against female violence, but not female violence or why all males don’t commit domestic violence