Topic 3: Gender Roles, Domestic Labour & Power Relationships

Question 1

What do the traditional perspectives think about conjugal roles?

Answer 1

1. Conjugal roles are biologically natural and normal (functionalists)
2. Conjugal roles are a social construct (Gabb)
3. Conjugal roles have become more equal (Young and Wilmott)
4. Conjugal roles are still unequal (feminists)

Question 2

What are the 2 types of conjugal roles?

Answer 2

Elizabeth Bott:

1. Segregated conjugal roles - where the couple have separate roles (one does housework other does paid employment). Leisure activities tend to be separate
2. Joint conjugal roles - couple share tasks such as housework and childcare and spend their leisure time together. Both do paid employment

Question 3

Talcott Parsons + conjugal roles

Answer 3

Roles are natural and biologically determined!!!

Instrumental role - a man. Warm bath theory - this role leads to stress and anxiety = women should perform the expressive role to help destress

Expressive role - a woman. Women’s biology meant that they gave birth + breastfed = naturally better at caring for children

Parsons argued that there had to be a clear cut division of labour by gender for the family to operate efficiently - the roles compliment each other

Question 4

Gabb + conjugal roles

Answer 4

Conjugal roles are a social construct (AO3 for Parsons)

• women are taught to be mothers…TV, media etc.
• feeling rules = informal rules in society about what you should feel in certain circumstances (EG both mum and dad should love their children - but in different ways which leads to different roles)
• learn to be a mother…not biological
• motherhood is a product of the culture of a particular society

Question 5

Young and Wilmott + conjugal roles

Answer 5

Conducted research in London in early 1970s and found that the symmetrical family was developing in Britain:

• shared chores and household tasks
• both partners likely to be involved in paid employment

Although the wife still had primary responsibility for housework and child rearing, husbands became more involved:
- in 72% of family households = men contributed to housework
- both men and women also shared responsibility for decisions that affected their families

Question 6

Reasons for the rise of the symmetrical family according to Y+W

Answer 6

1. Increased employment opportunities for women = now becoming breadwinners
2. Increasing geographical mobility - partners moving from extended family and strengthening bond between themselves
3. Reduction in the number of children women were having - greater opportunities for them to work
4. In the neo-conventional families, living standards rose and husbands felt more inclined to help at home

Question 7

Evaluation of Young and Wilmott (AO3)

Answer 7

Oakley (feminist) argues that their claim of increasing symmetry within marriage is based on inadequate research

EG 72% figure account for men just helping on 1 day of the week…not representative

Doesn’t consider the types of housework husband and wife does and the length of time it takes to complete a task

Question 8

Feminist view (Ann Oakley)

Answer 8

Rejects ‘March of Progress’ view:
- men and women remain unequal and women do most of the housework
- the fact that men are ‘helping’ women more does not prove symmetry. It shows that the responsibility of housework is still the woman’s.
- even though more women work, the housewife role is still the women’s primary role

Research findings:
- 15% of husbands had a high level of participation in housework

Other research to support Oakley’s findings
- ONS - women spend on average 2.5 hours a day on housework and men spend 1 hour

Question 9

What is the domestic division of labour?

Answer 9

The organisation of tasks such as housework and childcare

Question 10

What did Oxfam research find?

Answer 10

Women in a partnership spend 31% more time caring for children and 28% more time doing housework than men.

Women spend the equivalent of about 2 working days per month more than men on housework

Consequence: they have less time to do other things (careers / leisure)

Question 11

What did ONS data find?

Answer 11

2015 - men did an average of 16 hours per week on unpaid work whereas women did an average of 26 hours

Question 12

Crompton and Lyonette - explaining the gender division of labour

Answer 12

1. Economic theories - The fact that women generally earn less than men means it’s economically rational for women to do more of the housework and childcare whilst men spend more of their time earning money
2. Gender Construction theory - The division of labour is determined by patriarchal norms and values that shape 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. (Links to Gabb’s ideas)

Question 13

Crompton and lyonette - economic theories

Answer 13

• Gender pay gap shows men earn more - makes sense for them to dedicate their time to earning, while the woman can work part-time
• Kan and Laurie (2016) - inequality in gender roles reduced when women were employed + a degree (increases their earnings)
• Crompton and Lyonette - women who had full time paid employment and high wage rates did a lower proportion of domestic tasks than other women

Question 14

Crompton and lyonette - gender construction theories

Answer 14

• Kan and Laurie = link between attitudes to gender and gender inequality in domestic labour - the more traditional the attitude of men was towards gender roles, the lower proportion of housework they do (generational shift -younger men do more domestic work / ethnic differences)
• crompton and lyonette = more egalitarian gender roles within the home were found amongst lower age groups and the better educated (those from higher social classes)
• Dunne - lesbian couples had more symmetrical relationships because of the absence of traditional heterosexual ‘gender scripts’

Question 15

Impact of paid work having a positive impact on gender equality

Answer 15

Gershuny (1994) - women working full time is leading to a more equal division of labour in the home

Sullivan - trend towards equality in the home. Men are taking on more traditionally female roles (similar to the symmetrical family)

British Social Attitudes Survey (2013) - 1984 = 45% men and 41% women thought that it is the man’s job to earn money and the woman’s job to look after the family. 2012 = only 13% men and 12% women agreed

Question 16

Impact of paid work having a negative impact on gender equality

Answer 16

British Social Attitudes Survey (2013) = men did 8 hours of housework a week compared to the women’s 13

Duncombe and Marsden - triple shift

Question 17

The commercialisation of housework - a positive impact on gender equality?

Answer 17

Silver and Schor - goods and services such as domestic appliances and cleaners are used to reduce housework - women can work

Question 18

The Millennium Cohort Study - childcare

Answer 18

When the child was ill:
69.6% of mothers said they did most of the childcare
Only 1.1% of cases did their partner take main responsibility
28.6% of cases the responsibility was shared

Question 19

Braun, Vincent and Ball’s study

Answer 19

Study of WC fathers
Many classified as background fathers who saw the partner as primarily responsible for children

Only 1 father had made a change in their work to spend more time looking after children

Most of the fathers believed it was their partner’s primary responsibility

Question 20

Duncombe and Marsden study

Answer 20

Interviewed 40 couples who had been married for 15 years

Asked how they survived their marriage during an era of high divorce

They found that men were reluctant to deal with emotion work, leaving the woman to do so and kept the relationship together

They pretend everything is ok and ‘live the family myth’, but has emotional strain on the woman

TRIPLE SHIFT

Question 21

Statistics and facts about the effects of Domestic Work on Women’s Careers

Answer 21

BROWNE (2008)
40% of women work part time (9% men)

GATRELL (2004)
Highly qualified women are often discriminated against after retuning to work from maternity leave

Question 22

Power and money: Hardill et al’s study

Answer 22

Examined power in dual earner households:

19 households = man’s career came first
5 households = woman’s career came first
6 households = neither was clearly prioritised

Question 23

Power and money: Treas and Tai’s study

Answer 23

75% of couples across 31 countries made joint decisions on how to bring up children / expensive purchases

There has been a widespread move towards greater apparent equality

Question 24

Jan Pahl’s study on how couples managed their money

Answer 24

She found 4 main patterns of money management when interviewing 102 couples:

1. Husband controlled pooling (39 couples) - money shard but men had dominant role in deciding how it was spent
2. Wife controlled pooling (27 couples) - money shared but the wife had dominant role in deciding how it was spent
3. Husband control (22 couples) - husband usually one with main or only wife, and often gave his wife housekeeping money
4. Wife control (14 couples) - most common in WC / low income households. Responsibility for managing money was more of a burden than a privilege

Question 25

What’s the most egalitarian type of money management?

Answer 25

Pahl - most egalitarian type of control is wife-controlled pooling, where there tends to be a greater deal of joint decision making

Wife controlled systems should give women an advantage over men, but they tend to be found in households where money is taught - women will go short themselves (kempson)

Husband controlled systems tends to give husbands more power than their wives = they spend more on personal consumption

Question 26

Pahl’s conclusion

Answer 26

Pahl found that just over a quarter of the coupes had a system (wife controlled pooling) associated with a fair degree of equality

This suggests that in relationships women have not yet come close to reaching a position of equality

Question 27

How is decision making still unequal - Edgell

Answer 27

Key findings:
- finance taken by husband alone or jointly with husband having final say
- less important decisions such as home decor and children’s clothes usually made by the wife

Therefore decisions are still focused on traditional gender norms, suggesting that women take the expressive role and men take the instrumental role

Evaluation:
Laurie and Gershuny - by 1995, 70% of couples said they had an equal say in making decisions - generational shift / change in attitudes

Question 28

Volger et al (2007) and the International Social Survey from 2002

Answer 28

Concluded that cohabiting couples have less egalitarian relationships than married couples (independence)

Question 29

Feminist perspective of money and decision making

Answer 29

Agree that earnings do affect who makes decisions, but not the deciding factor

Argues that the cause of inequalities is due to the patriarchal society = socialisation means boys are brought up to be ‘decision makers’

This view reflects the gender construction theory put forward by Crompton and Lyonette

Question 30

Persona; life perspective of money and decision making

Answer 30

Meaning of money is subjective

Who controls the money in a relationship doesn’t necessarily mean they have more power

Smart (2007) - same sex couples attach no importance to money - not a sign of control

Question 31

Women’s Aid Federation (2014) - domestic violence

Answer 31

DV counts for between 1/6 and 1/4 of all recorded violent crimes

Question 32

Coleman and Osborne (2010) - Domestic Violence

Answer 32

2 women victims a week are killed by a partner or former partner

Question 33

Mirlees-Black - Domestic Violence

Answer 33

99% of all incidents against women are committed by men

Nearly 1 in 4 women have been assaulted by a partner at some point in her lifetime, and 1 in 8 repeatedly so

What is shows:
Majority of victims are women
Doesn’t just happen once - repeated

Question 34

Evaluation of Official Statistics - Domestic Violence

Answer 34

• Victims may be unwilling to report it to the police:
  Yearnshire - on average, a woman suffers 35 assaults before making a report
  DV is the violent crime least likely to be reported
  Darr - victims believe its not a matter for the police
• Police and prosecutors may be reluctant to record, investigate or prosecute cases:
  Cheal - this is because police and other state agencies are not prepared to become involved in the family. Reasons:
  1. Family is private
  2. Family is a good thing - tendency to ignore
  3. Individuals are free agents = if she’s experiencing abuse, she can leave

Therefore, loads of cases are not taken seriously

Question 35

Explanations for domestic violence

Answer 35

Psychological explanations - Gilchrist et al
Feminist explanations - Dobash and Dobash

Question 36

Psychological explanations for DV - Gilchrist et al

Answer 36

Studied records on 336 male perpetrators and found there wer two types of offender but both had psychological problems:

1. Anti-social / narcissistic offenders - had hostile attitudes towards women and tended to see DV as acceptable in some circumstances. Emotional abuse with DV. These men could be very threatening in attempts to control women
2. Borderline / emotionally volatile offenders - less frequently emotionally abusive but could make extreme threats. Controlling over money and actively discouraging their partner from going out to see other people

Question 37

Criticisms of psychological explanations for DV

Answer 37

Walklate - DV is not confined to a small group of men (1/4 of women experience DV at some point in their life). Therefore, male perpetrators are not atypical of other men and the root causes can be found in the patriarchal nature of society.

Male violence is one way of ‘doing gender’ in a way that helps maintain patriarchal control

Question 38

Dobash and Dobash - culture, history and social structure

Answer 38

DV is linked with the existence of patriarchy and is about the exercise of power by men to maintain that dominance

Historically, there has been an acceptance of violence by husbands against their wives. (19th century - public punishment)
Contemporary - husbands are still expected to be dominant in families. DV is used to maintain patriarchal control - these attitudes are reinforced by a police force which is reluctant to intervene in domestic disputes

Question 39

Dobash and Dobash - specific causes of disputes and violence

Answer 39

Conflict of interest between husbands and wives:
Men wanted to make sure their interests prevailed
EG men became violent when they felt that their partners were not servicing their needs such as preparing food.

Possessiveness and jealousy:
Many of the men in the study could become violent if their wives had contact with other men / felt their partners were being unfaithful

Question 40

Dobash and Dobash - masculinity and violence

Answer 40

D+D accept that some women are violent, but argue that DV is more commonly used by men
They see this as being part of masculine identity (force and intimidation are signs of masculine worth) - they cannot allow themselves to be pushed around by a woman

Question 41

Evaluation of D+D

Answer 41

Attitudes to DV has changed - police male more effort to deal with victims + government campaigns encourage victims to report these crimes

The emphasis on masculinity does not explain the existence of DV committed by women in heterosexual or lesbian relationships

Gilligan - much violence results from feelings of shame which stems from material deprivation. Material success is important - when inequality leaves many WC and minority ethnic men impoverished, it can lead to DV against their partners