Topic 1- Couples Flashcards
What does Parsons say about couples (1955) ?
There are two roles, the instrumental and expressive roles. The roles are assigned based on biological differences.
What type of theorist is Parsons?
A functionalist
Define the instrumental role in a relationship.
The breadwinner of the family, successful at work to provide for the family and is usually the husband.
Define the expressive role in a relationship.
The homemaker who provides primary socialisation of children and meets emotional needs, they are usually the wives.
According to Parsons, what is the difference between these roles based on?
Difference of roles based on biological differences. Women are given the expressive role because they are naturally more nurturing, and men that of a provider.
What other perspectives agree with Parsons view?
The New Right.
Give two criticisms of Parsons.
Willmott and young (1962)- Men taking greater share of domestic tasks, wives become wage earners
Feminists- Reject that divide is natural and argue that it only benefits men.
What does Bott say about couples (1957) ?
There are two types of conjugal roles, the segregated conjugal role and joint conjugal roles.
Define the term segregated conjugal roles.
Where the couple have separate roles: a male breadwinner and a female homemaker/carer, as in parsons instrumental and expressive roles. Their leisure time also tend to be seperate.
Define the term joint conjugal roles.
Where the couple share tasks such as housework and childcare and spend their leisure time together.
Explain Willmott and Young’s 1950s study into segregated conjugal roles.
Studied traditional working-class extended families in Bethnal Green, east London in the 1950s. Men spent leisure time with workmates in pubs and Women spent leisure time with female relatives and had sole responsibility for housework and childcare.
Define the symmetrical family.
The roles of husbands and wives are much more similar, Women now go out to work, Men help with childcare and housework, Couples spend leisure time together
Explain Willmott and Young’s 1970s study into the symmetrical family.
Symmetrical family more common among younger couples, who are geographically and socially isolated who are well off. Rise of symmetrical family due to social changes taken place in the last century.
According to Willmott and Young, what social changes in the last century have caused for the rise in symmetrical families?
-Changes in women’s position
-Geographical mobility, living away from traditional communities
-New technology, labour saving devices
-Higher standards of living
What view do Willmott and Young take?
The march of progress view.
What is the feminist view on housework?
Reject the march of progress view. Argue that little has changes and men and women still remain unequal, this is because we are still in a patriarchal society.
What does feminist Anne Oakley say about symmetrical families?
Criticises Willmott and Young’s idea of a symmetrical family, claim their views are exaggerated. Men may claim to do more child care than they do for example taking their child to the park once a week.
What did Anne Oakley’s 1970s research show about housework?
Showed that 15% of husbands had high participation in housework, and 25% had high participation in childcare. Men only took part in the pleasurable aspects of childcare. This could mean mothers lost the rewards of childcare such as playing with the children.
What does Boulton 1983 research show?
Found that fewer than 20% of husbands had a major role in childcare. Argues Willmott and young exaggerate mens role by looking at tasks involved in childcare rather than responsibilities.
What did Warde and Heatherington 1990s research find?
Sex-typing of domestic tasks remained strong. e.g wives 30x more likely to be the last person who did the washing, husbands 4x more likely to be last person to wash. the car. Men would only carry out feminine tasks when their wive was not there.
What are impacts of women getting paid work on the family?
-Could lead to a more equal division of domestic tasks, with a ‘new man’ doing an equal share of housework and childcare (MOP view)
-Or women will now have to carry a ‘dual burden’ of paid work and domestic work. (FEM view)
What does MOP theorist Gershuny say about the impact paid work has?
Argues that women working full-time is leading to a more equal division of labour in the home, did studies and found that these women did less domestic work than others.
What did Sullivan’s 2000s MOP analyst find about the impact of paid work?
1950s-90s found trend of women doing a smaller share of domestic work and men doing more. Men participating in more traditional female work.
How much to men do according to the British Social Attitudes survey?
2012- Men did 8 hours of housework a week, women did 13
Men did family care for 10 hours a week where as women spent 23 hours. Women did twice as much work as men.
What tasks were genders more likely to take in a relationship according to the British Social Attitudes survey?
Couples continue to divide household tasks traditionally, Women did laundry, take care of family members etc while men were more likely to do small repairs around the house
What did Hochschild (2013) talk about?
Emotion work
What is emotion work?
Where women are responsible for managing the emotions and feelings of family members.
Who talks about emotion work?
Hochschild (2013)
Who talked about the triple shift?
Duncombe and Marsden (1995)
What did Duncombe and Marsden (1995) talk about?
The triple shift
What is the triple shift?
When women have to undertake housework, paid work and emotion work.
What did Southerton (2011) talk about?
Said that the responsibility of organising quality time as a family falls onto the mother and this is an even more difficult task for working women.
Who identified the two explanations for the division of labour?
Crompton and Lyonette (2008)
What did Crompton and Lyonette (2008) talk about?
The two explanations for the domestic division of labour:
-the cultural/ideological explanation.
-the material/economic explanation.
What are the two explanations for the division of labour
The cultural/ideological and the material/economic
What evidence is there for the cultural explanation? [4]
-Gershuny(1994): couples who’s parents had equal relationships are more likely to share housework equally.
-Man Yee Kan (2001): younger men do more domestic work.
-Future Foundation (2000): most men claim to do more housework than there father, and most women do less than their mother.
-Dunne (1999): lesbian couples had more symmetrical relationships as they weren’t pressured to conform to the stereotypical gender scripts.
What evidence is there for the material explanation? [3]
-Kan: for every £10,000 a year a woman earns, she does two hours less of housework per week.
-Sarah et al. (1995): middle-class women were more capable of buying labour-saving devices and other products and services that saved time on domestic chores.
-Ramos (2003): in couples where the woman is the breadwinner and the man is unemployed, he does as much domestic labour as she does.
What is the cultural explanation for the domestic division of labour?
Patriarchal norms and values are what shape the gender roles we have.
What is the material explanation for the domestic division of labour?
Men are more likely to earn more than their wives, so it’s more rational for women to take on the expressive role.
What evidence is there to suggest that the division of childcare is still unequal? [3]
-Ferri and Smith (1996): in fewer than 4% of families father took care of their children.
-Dex and Ward (2007): only took responsibility for the fun parts of childcare; e.g. only 1% of fathers took care of their sick child.
-Braun, Vincent and Ball (2011): found that only in 3/70 families was the husband the primary care givers. Most were background fathers who held a provider ideology. This was further enforced by the media promoting ideas of intensive mothering which taught women how to be good mothers.
What did Barret and Mcintosh’s (1991) study on money management show?
-Men gain far more from women’s domestic work than they give back in financial support
-The financial support they do give is unpredictable and comes with strings attached.
-Men usually make the important decisions on what to spend money on
What did Kempson’s (1994) research on resources show?
Family members do not share their resources equally and among low-income families, women’s needs are often denied. E.g. getting less food or skipping meals
Who identified the two types of control over family income?
Pahl and Vogler (1993)
What did Pahl and Volger’s (1993) study on money management show?
There are two types of control over family income: the allowance system and pooling.
Pooling was becoming more popular.
What are the two types of control over family income?
Allowance and pooling
What is the allowance system?
Where men give their wives an allowance in order to budget and meet the family’s needs.
According the Pahl and Vogler, which form of money management is becoming more common?
Pooling
What is one evaluation behind the fact that pooling is becoming more common?
Pahl and Vogler (2007): even when pooling is used, men tend to make the major financial decisions.
What did Edgell’s (1980) study on decision making show?
-Very important decisions (e.g. moving house) were primarily taken by the husband.
-Important decisions regarding the child care and their children’s education was carried out primarily by the wife.
-Less important decisions (e.g. home decor) were also taken out by the wife.
What evidence is there to show that women’s careers take a backseat to their husbands?
-Hardill (1997): studied 30 dual-career couples and found that most decisions were taken either by the man alone or jointly and that the man’s career to priority.
-Finch (1983): women’s lives tend to be structured around their husbands’ careers.
What does the personal life perspective say when looking at money management?
You have to focus on the meanings couples give to who controls the money. E.g. some couples may not see who controls the money as a sign of power.
What did Smart’s (2007) study on homosexual relationships show?
Gay and lesbian couples attached no importance to who controlled the money in their relationship and there was greater freedom to structure their relationship as they wanted as they didn’t have the same gendered baggage behind the meanings of money and control.
Who said that the responsibility of organising quality time as a family falls onto the mother and this is an even more difficult task for working women?
Southerton
Who said that by cohabiting, couples are making the conscious decision to create a more equal relationship?
Benjin (1985)
What is domestic abuse?
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.
What fraction of violent crimes does domestic abuse account for?
Between a sixth and a quarter
What did Dobash and Dobash (1979: 2007) research on domestic violence show?
-They did research in Scotland based on police records and interviews with women.
-They found that: wives had been slapped, pushed, beaten, raped and killed by their husbands.
-Violence was triggered when husbands felt their authority was being challenged.
-Argue that marriage legitimates the violence against women and makes women dependent on them.
What did the CSEW (2020) show about the domestic violence men and women experience?
Estimated that 7.3% of women have experienced domestic abuse compared to 3.6%.
What did Coleman and Osborne (2010) discover about domestic abuse?
Two women a week are killed by a partner or former partner.
What did Yearnshire (1997) find out about women’s reluctance to report domestic abuse?
On average, women suffer up to 35 assaults before making a report.
What reason did Cheal (1991) give for the unreported cases of domestic abuse? [3]
The police are not willing to be involved in the family due to certain reasons:
-the family is part of the private sphere.
-the family is a good institution so people ignore the dark side.
-as we have free will, they just expect the woman to leave her partner in order to resolve everything
What are the two explanations of domestic violence?
The radical feminist explanation and the materialist explanation
What is the radical feminist explanation of domestic abuse?
Widespread domestic violence is an inevitable feature of patriarchal society and serves to preserve the power that all men have over all women.
What is a criticism of the radical feminist explanation of domestic abuse? [3]
-Elliot (1996) rejects the idea that all men benefit from domestic violence against women (e.g. not all men are violent and most are opposed to domestic violence).
-Radical feminists fail to explain female violence and child abuse.
-Ignore why some women are more at risk of domestic violence e.g. young women, economically deprived women, disabled women etc
What is the material explanation of domestic abuse?
Stress created by economic factors leads to people taking their anger out on their partner
Who saw domestic violence as a result of economic stress?
Wilkinson and Pickett (2010)
What did Wilkinson and Pickett (2010) say about domestic violence?
It was a result of economic stress
What are some evaluations of the materialist explanation of domestic violence?
-Doesn’t explain why women are more likely to be victims.
-Marxist feminists see inequality as a cause of domestic violence.
-E.g. Ansley (1972): describes women as the “takers of shit” from their worker husbands
