Topic 6 - Families And Households Flashcards
What do functionalists think about the division of domestic labour?
Parsons-
1) instrumental- breadwinner wnd provider, mans role
2) expressive- meeting families emotional needs, homemaker, womens role
This is due to biological differences making them suited for each role.
What are criticisms of the functionalists perspective on the division of domestic labour?
Young and willmot- argue men are taking a greater share of domestic tasks.
Feminists- roles are socially constructed
What are conjugal roles?
Bott- 2 types of conjugal roles
1) segregated conjugal roles- where couples have separate roles, expressive and instrumental
2) joint conjugal- share tasks
What is evidence for conjugal roles?
Young and willmott- study on traditional w/c families in london had mostly segregated roles
What is the symmetrical family?
Young and willmott did a longitudinal study on london ( one over time). When they came back in 1970, they said family life was improving and it was a march of progress.
They call families with a joint conjugal roles a symmetrical family
By symmetrical they mean women also work and men help with housework too.
Social changes have led to the development of the nuclear symmetrical family. Such as
1) changes in the position of women
2) geographic mobility
3) labour saving devices
4) higher standard of living
What is a criticism of the symmetrical family?
Feminists reject this march of progress, they say little has changed and men and women remained unequal.
Oakley- although young and wilmott found men helped atleast once a week, this wasnt enough and claims were exaggerated, she found:
1) only 15% of men participated in house work
2) only 25% of men participated in child care
What is the impact of paid work from the march of progress?
March of progress- women working leads to a more equal division of labour:
1) gershuny- women who work full time do less domestic work
2) sullivan- collected data from 1975-1997 and found a trend towards more equality
3) schor and silver- housework has been commercialised- there are products to help with labour.
What is the impact of paid work from feminists?
Women carry a dual burden
1) British attitudes survey found overall women did twice as much domestic work then men.
2) dex and ward- althought fathers had a high involvement with their 3 year old kids, when they got sick only 1% of fathers looked after them
3) hothschild- taking responsibility for your family is emotional work, dunscombe and marsden say it is a triple shift for women
What the cultural explanation to the gender division of labour?
Crompton and lyonette- say there is 2 reasons for the difference of unequal labour
1) gershuny- found couples who had parents that shared domestic work would more likely share domestic work.
2)man yee kan- younger men do more domestic work, suggesting a generational shift
3) dunne- lesbian couples shared domestic labour as there was an absence of traditional heterosexual gender scripts
What is the material explanation to the gender division of labour?
If women make as much as their partners in the labour force then the domestic labour should be equal.
1) kann - found every 10k a women earns she does 2 hours less work
2) ramos- when a man is unemployed he does as much domestic work as the breadwinner women
Explain how resources work in the family?
Pahl and vogler- there are 2 main types of control over family income
1) the allowance system- men give their wives an allowance out of which they budget to meet family needs
2) the pooling system- both partners have access to income and joint responsibility for expenditure
Explain decision making in the household?
Hardhill- found the important decisions were made by the man alone or jointly and his career took priority
Edgell- decisions
1) very important- Husband or jointly but husband had final say
2) important decisions- usually joint
3) less important decisions- wife alone
What is the personal life perspectives on money?
Focuses on why someone controls the money.
Smart- in gay and lesbian relations little importance is given to who controlled the money. There is more freedom as they dont have ‘historical, gendered and heterosexual baggage of cultural meanings around money.’
Explain the trends of domestic violence?
Sociologists argue the view domestic violence is done by a few people who suffer psychologically:
1) it is too widespread- the crime survey, 2 million people reporter domestic violence
2) it does not occur randomly- follows social patterns and social causes- it is normally men against women
3) dobash and dobash- marriage legitimises domestic violence, violence usually happened when men’s authorities were challenged
What do official statistics say about domestic violence?
1) victims are often unwilling to report, on average women suffer 35 assaults before reporting
2) cheal- argues the police are not prepared to get involved in family life, they make 3 assumptions; family is a private sphere, ignore darker side of family, individuals have free will and could leave if it was bad but violence is normally paired with economic power
