Topic 6 - Couples Flashcards
What are the three key areas focused on in Topic 6 couples
- Domestic division of labour
- Resources and decision making in households
- Domestic violence
Provide a theorist who believes husbands and wives should be segregated.
Parsons - There should be a clear division of labour as male and female biology suits different roles
What role should men play, and what would women play in a family, according to Parsons
Instrumental husbands’ role is to achieve success at work and be the provider
expressive The wife should meet the families emotional needs, socialising the children and doing domestic work
Criticise Parsons view that there should be a clear division of labour between a couple. (Theorist)
Young and Willmott - argue men are taking a greater share of domestic labour and more wives are becoming wage earners.
Use a theorist to discuss conjugal roles (roles within a marriage)
Bott 2 types of roles
Segregated conjugal roles - couple have separate roles the husbands instrumental and the wives expressive
Joint conjugal roles - the couple share tasks such as housework and childcare. They also spend leisure time together
Give a theorist who studied conjugal roles in traditional working class families. What did they find?
Young and Willmott - most families had segregated conjugal roles
Where men had an instrumental role and women a expressive one
Give a theorist who revisited a site to study conjugal roles in working class families. What did they find?
Young and willmott went back to their past site and studied the same families they explained that there was a long term trend away from segregated roles towards joint roles.
They call this a symmetrical family.
What do Young and Willmott mean by symmetrical family?
Gender roles are more similar,
- women go to work
- men now help with housework
- couples now spend leisure time together
Why do Young and Willmott believe symmetrical nuclear families are occurring (4 marks)
- changes in position of women - married women go out to work
- geographic mobility - more couples live away from the communities they grew up in
- New technology - labour saving devices
- Higher standard of living
Criticise Young and Willmott view that there is a march of progress towards symmetrical families. (Theorist)
Oakley - relationships are still patrichal as only 15% of husbands had a high level of participation in housework
According to the March of Progress view is more women in paid work a positive? (Theorist)
They believe women going to work leads to a more equal division of labour.
Gershuny - found women who work full time also do less domestic labour
According to the Feminsit view is more women in paid work a positive? (Theorist)
They feel women now face a dual burden
Dunscombe and Marsden argue women now take on a triple shift doing emotional, paid and domestic work
What are the 2 different explanations for the unequal division of labour?
Cultural explanation - women perform domestic tasks because that’s what society expects. No change until gender roles are challenged
Material explanation - if women join the workforce doing as much as their partners, men and women should do equal domestic work
Give evidence for the cultural explanation. For differences in domestic labour.
Gershuny - couples who had parents who shared domestic tasks are more likely to do the same
Give evidence for the material explanation.
Kan - found for every £10,000 a women earns she does 2 hours less housework per week
Paul and Vogler identified 2 main types of control over family income. What are they?
The allowance system - where the men give wives give an allowance which they budget to meet the families needs.
Pooling - where both partners have access to the income and a joint responsibility for expenditures
In a couple who would make the important decisions? (Theorist)
Hardhill found important decisions were usually made by the man alone or jointly
What are the 3 types of decisions a couple can make?
- Very important decisions - like moving house (normally done by husband or jointly)
- Important decisions - like children’s education (usually taken jointly or by the wife)
- Less important decisions - like home decor (usually taken by wife)
How can pooling income be unequal and seperation be equal? (Theorist)
Pahl it depends on who is contributing the most to who controls the money even if both partners have access.
Cohabitating couples are less likely to pool but more likely to share domestic work
The meaning couples give to who controls the money varies. In one couple it could be a sign of inequality in another it may not. Give a theorist supporting this.
Smart - in same sex marriages, little importance is given to who controls the money as they don’t have historical baggage from past traditions.
Define domestic violence
Any incident of physiological, physical, sexual, financial, and emotional violence between intimate partners or family members
Criticise the view that domestic violence is the behaviour of a few disturbed and sick individuals. (Provide 2 points and one theorist)
Domestic violence is too far spread to be the work of a few. 2 million people have reported being victims of domestic abuse.
Domestic abuse doesn’t occur randomly it follows particular social patterns like it’s done mostly by men.
Dobash and Dobash found marriage legitimises domestic violence against women and often occurred when husbands felt their authority was being challenged.
Official statistics are often understate the true impact of domestic violence due to 2 reasons…
- Victims are often unwilling to report their offence to the police as they believe its too trivial
- Police and prosecutors may be reluctant to investigate or prosecute
cheal found police are often dealing with other matters and aren’t prepared to get involved in family life
What are the two explanations offered by sociologists for domestic abuse?
- The radical feminists believe it’s due to patriarchal society
- The materialistic explanation says it’s due to financial stress
Give a theorist for the radical feminists explanation for domestic abuse
Firestone and millet argue all of society is founded on the patriarchy. Men are the key oppressors of women.
Give a theorist for the materialist explanation for domestic abuse
Pickett - see DV as a result of stress on family members caused by financial and social inequalities.
Criticise the radical feminists explanation for domestic abuse (theorist)
Elliot reject radical feminists views that all men benefit from domestic abuse
- most men are opposed to DV
- Not all men are domestically violent
- don’t explain why not all women get abused
- fail to explain why women carry out domestic abuse
Criticise the materialist explanation for domestic abuse
Unlike radical feminists they don’t explain why women rather than men receive the most domestic abuse
