Topic 6

Question 1

Parsons - domestic division of labour

Answer 1

a functionalist believes: Husbands and wives roles should be segregated, in other words there should be a clear division of labour.

Question 2

Young and wilmott -

Answer 2

Argue men are now taking a greater share of domestic tasks and more wives are becoming wage earners.

Question 3

Bott - conjugal roles

Answer 3

SEGREGATED CONJUGAL ROLES: where the couple have separate roles; a male breadwinner (instrumental) and a female homemaker (expressive). Their leisure activities are also separate.
JOINT CONJUGAL ROLES: where the couple share tasks such as housework and childcare and also spends their leisure time together.

Question 4

Young and wilmott - symmetrical family

Answer 4

Young & Wilmott (1973) went back to Bethnal Green in 1970s (this is called a longitudinal study – done over time). They say family life is improving over time this is known as a MARCH OF PROGRESS.
They argue there has been a long term trend away from segregated roles to JOINT conjugal roles, a family with joint roles they call a SYMMETRICAL FAMILY.

Question 5

Oakley - criticising young and wilmott

Answer 5

criticises Young & Wilmott’s view that the family is now symmetrical; she says their claims are exaggerated. Although Young & Wilmott found that husbands ‘helped’ their wives at least once a week Oakley argues that is hardly evidence to suggest symmetry. She found:
• Only 15% of husbands had a high level of participation in housework.
• Only 25% had a high level of participation in childcare.

Question 6

Gershuny - march of progress

Answer 6

Found that women who work full time do less domestic work than other women.

Question 7

Sullivan - march of progress

Answer 7

Collected date in 1975, 1987 and 1997 and found a trend toward more equality in terms of who does the domestic work in the home.

Question 8

Schor and silver - march of progress

Answer 8

Argue the housewife has died as housework has been commercialised - labour saving devices, fast food, cleaners, ready meals.

Question 9

British attitude survey - feminists

Answer 9

Found overall women did twice as domestic work much as men, 60% of women felt this division of labour was unjust.

Question 10

Dex and ward - feminist

Answer 10

Although fathers have high involvement with their 3 year olds - 78% played with them, when they were sick only 1% of fathers looked after them.

Question 11

Hoschschild - feminists

Answer 11

Says taking responsibility for family members is called ‘emotional work’

Question 12

Dunscombe and marsden - feminists

Answer 12

Argue women now have to undertake the triple shift of paid work, domestic work and emotional work.

Question 13

Southerton - feminists

Answer 13

Also claims that mothers also coordinate and schedule the families quality time - this is increasingly difficult in today’s late modern society where peoples time has become more fragmented.

Question 14

Crompton and Lyonette - gender division of labour

Answer 14

say there are two different explanations for the unequal division of labour:
• Cultural explanation
• Material explanation

Question 15

Cultural explanation

Answer 15

the view that the division of labour is determined by patriarchal norms and values that shape gender roles. Women perform domestic tasks because that is what society expects. There won’t be equality until the gender roles are challenged.

Question 16

Material explanation

Answer 16

this view states that if women join the labour force and earn as much as their partners then we should expect to see men and women doing more equal amounts of domestic work.

Question 17

Gershuny - cultural explanation

Answer 17

found couples who had parents who shared domestic tasks were themselves more likely to share housework. Parental role models are important.

Question 18

Man yee kan - cultural explanation

Answer 18

found younger men do more domestic work, this suggests a generational shift is taking place.

Question 19

Dunne - cultural explanation

Answer 19

found lesbian couples had more symmetrical relationships because there was the absence of traditional heterosexual ‘gender scripts’. She studied 37 lesbian couples and found that they described their relationship as equal, share housework and childcare equally and give equal importance to each other’s careers.

Question 20

Man yee kan - material explanation

Answer 20

found for every £10,000 a year a women earns she does two hours less housework per week

Question 21

Ramos - material explanation

Answer 21

found that where the woman is the main breadwinner and the man is unemployed, he does as much domestic work as she does

Question 22

Sullivan - material explanation

Answer 22

found that working full time had a bigger impact on domestic work than if a women worked part time

Question 23

Crompton A03

Answer 23

states that women still earn less than men: in 7 out of 8 households men earn more. So there is no immediate prospect of a more equal division of labour if this is dependent on economic equality between the sexes.

Question 24

Pahl and vogler - resources and decision making in households

Answer 24

The allowance system – where men give their wives an allowance out of which they budget to meet the family’s needs.
Pooling – where both partners have access to income and joint responsibility for expenditure e.g. a joint bank account. Pooling is on the increase and the most common money management system

Question 25

Hardhill - decision making

Answer 25

found when studying professional couples that the important decisions were usually taken by the man alone or jointly and his career usually took priority when deciding whether to move house for a new job.

Question 26

Edgell - decision making

Answer 26

a) Very important decisions – these involved finance e.g. moving house and usually
taken by the husband or jointly but with the husband having the final say.
b) Important decisions – e.g. children’s education, holidays etc. usually taken jointly seldom the wife alone.
c) Lessimportantdecisions–e.g.home decor, clothes, food usually made by the wife.

Question 27

Nyman - decision making

Answer 27

argues money has no fixed automatic meaning and different couples define it in different ways.

Question 28

Smart - personal life perspective on money

Answer 28

found that in same sex couples the control of money is often given a different meaning. In gay and lesbian relationships little importance is attached to who controlled the money. She argues that there is greater freedom for same sex couples to do what suits them as a couple as they do not enter into the same “historical, gendered, heterosexual baggage of cultural meanings around money”.

Question 29

The crime survey - domestic violence is far too widespread

Answer 29

The Crime Survey (2013) found that 2 million people reported having
been victims of domestic abuse (1.2 million women, 800,000 men).

Question 30

Dobash and dobash - domestic violence does not occur randomly

Answer 30

found that marriage legitimates domestic violence against women by conferring power and authority on husbands and dependency on wives. Violence often occurred when husbands felt their authority was being challenged.

Question 31

Cheal - extent to domestic violence

Answer 31

states that often the police and other state agencies are not prepared to get involved in family life, they make 3 assumptions about family life:
a) The family is a private sphere so access by the state should be limited
b) The family is a good thing and so agencies tend to neglect the darker side of family life
c) Individuals are free agents so it is assumed women would leave if it was that
bad. However this is not true as violence is often coupled with economic power and women are unable to leave.

Question 32

Firestone and millet - explanations for domestic violence

Answer 32

argue all societies are founded on patriarchy. All key divisions in society are between men and women. Men are the enemy: they are the oppressors and exploiters of women.
According to radical feminists marriage is the key institute that promotes and maintains a patriarchal society and is the key oppressor of women. Within the family, men dominate women through domestic violence or the threat of it.
Widespread domestic violence is an inevitable feature of a patriarchal society and serves to preserve the power men have over women.

Question 33

Elliott - rejecting radical feminists

Answer 33

Most men are opposed to domestic violence
Not all men are domestically violent (in fact most aren’t)
They also fail to explain why female violence, incl. child abuse by
women and violence against men or within lesbian relationships.

Question 34

The office for national statistics - women from social groups

Answer 34

suggests that women from some social groups face a greater risk:
• Young women
• Those in lowest social classes and those living in deprived areas
• Low incomes
• Living in rented accommodation
• Drug and alcohol users
• Long term illness or disability

Question 35

Wilkinson and Pickett - materialist explanation

Answer 35

see domestic violence as the result of stress on family members caused by social inequality.
Inequality means some families have fewer resources than others, therefore likely to experience higher levels of stress. This stress reduces the chances of maintaining stable caring relationships and increases the chances of conflict and violence. For example:
• Worries about money, jobs, housing
• Lack of money and time restricts peoples social circles and reduces support for those
under stress