Family- Power and Inequality

Domestic division of labour

DDOL- the way tasks are divided up in a household between its members

• this is influenced by gender roles

• when couples have traditional beliefs about male and female roles, women do more domestic labour than in households where belifes reflect sexual equality

• 75% of men and women believe the DDOL is very fair or somewhat fair.

UK time use survery, 2000

• studied 6500 households- 11,700 participants

• keep a diary of how they spend time one week day and one day at the weekend

  men- 2hrs, 20mins

  women- 4hrs

  92% of women did laundry

  94% of men did DIY

nPower study, 2002

• women do twice as much housework as men

  • women > 2 hours

  • men < 1 hours

• men are now doing more than ever (1940- 15 mins)

however spend more time in paid employment, meaning they spend on average the same amount of time working in a week (~50 hours)

£10,000 increase in female’s wage —> 2 hours less housework per week

Girls average 5x as much housework as boys, but boys are given more money.

Young and Wilmott, functionalists

• used questionnaires to research the domestic division of labour within 6000 families in East London.

• significant shift in conjugal roles in traditional nuclear families.

• concluded there had been a march of progress within the DDOL.

segregated conjugal roles —>	—> integrated conjugal roles
clearly defined roles men bring in money, do heavier and technical jobs in home and women are mainly housewives and are unlikely to have full time paid employment. likely to have separate friends and different leisure activities.	flexible roles likely to both be in paid employment chores and childcare is shared female partners do traditional male jobs such as DIY share common friends, leisure activities and decision making

Principle of stratified diffusion 🌊

Social changes within the family first occur in the upper class, they are then seen as the norm as the pattern of change filters down through the middle class and then the working class.

Reasons for change from segregated to integrated roles

1. more money- increase in male wages and rising number of women entering paid employment

2. working conditions- decreasing male mortality rate combined with lower unemployment rate

3. geographic mobility- families are moving around more which means there is a weaker support network.

4. less children- enables wives to get a job so more income equality.

5. living standards- men more likely to spend time with family due to increasing entertainment tech at home.

Elizabeth Bott

most important factor influencing conjugal roles: social networks of friends and kin built up by each partner before and during marriage

• tight knit support network in regular contact teases them from drifting from traditional segregated roles.

• nuclear family is more geographically mobile meaning social networks are weaker so there is more reliance on the partners in the relationship which leads to more integration.

Commercialisation fo housework, Silver and Schor- feminists

process of managing or running something for financial gain e.g. the way housework has been changed by capitalists who have tried to make money from it

• new technological goods and services that women can purchase to reduce the amount of time they need to spend on domestic labour

• goods: ring doorbell, smart fridge, microwave, robot hoover

  • makes housework less time consuming and easier

  • less skills needed- encourages men and children to do more

• services: cut down on the amount of time required for everyday tasks e.g. shop online

  • 80% of British families say they regularly shop online

  • top purchases for women- food, clothes, medicine- which all benefit wider family

“death of the housewife”: women who are working or live with middle class male breadwinners can afford services and goods meaning housework is reduced. however, middle class women trap working class women in a “burden of pain” by paying them to take over the domestic duties they either don’t have time for or do not want to do.

The double/ second shift- feminists

Feminists reject Young and Wilmott’s claim of the nuclear family being symmetrical with more integrated roles and argue that a rise in female employment has not been met with a rise in male domestic work.

Therefore, inequality has increased as working women are still expected to do domestic tasks so now they have to do a double shift.

2008, British social attitudes survery

• 75% of mothers do most of the cooking for their children.

• 40% of British men felt that housework was a “woman’s job”.

• 20% of men admitted they never cleaned

  → housework was found to be the second largest cause of domestic disagreements.

Arlie Hochschild, second shift

Arlie Hochschild, second shift

Working women still end up taking on the role of housewife. All women experience a period of full time housework, some only return to part time work when their youngest child starts school.

• used systematic sampling in the Fortune 500 (every 13th person in each company)

• married couples who both worked with children under 6

• non-participant overt observation with interviews- more believable data than Young + Wilmott

  → women better at multitasking

  → happier families when they shared second shift

  → workplace is designed for men with stay at home wives

Ann Oakley, feminist

Families cannot be symmetrical due to the double shift- reject Young and Wilmott’s claim that there has been a march of progress within the family for women.

Argues that Y+W overexaggerated the contributions men were making- when men did choose to help, it was by selecting the fun and simple tasks, so women had no choice but to do everything else.

factory act, 1847

the housewife role became cemented as it excluded women from the workplace and confined them to a life within the home.

Duncombe and Marsden, triple shift

Women have to take on emotional work required to keep a family together e.g. mediator

• after separation/ divorce- 1/3 of men have little contact with kids, 1/8 no contact

Domestic work vs paid employment

Paid employment

• have breaks, and holidays, and can take sick days

• can make friends with colleages- although some may be tricky to work with

• have a contract and a pension

• have to have done qualifications

• can strike/ complain if necessary

• more pressure about being fired and reaching deadlines

ultimately depends on what it is…

Domestic work

• monotonous

• no breaks

• solitary isolated actiivity

• no employment contract or workers rights

• no qualifications needed

• unpaid- no incentive/reward

• has little status- not seen as real work at all, little recognition

• overall, value of parent for economy is £700 billion

….and who you are as a person

Stephen edgell, decision making

women only had sole responsibility for decisions in relatively unimportant areas e.g. decoration, food, kids clothes. men are more likely to have final say on the most important decisions e.g. moving house, taking out loans

Consequences of inequality for women

Women’s continuing responsibility for housework and childcare means that their career suffers which holds back their earning power.

Working women are limited in the jobs and hours they can do e.g. still have to take responsibility for the housework and be home to pick up kids from school.

Means women struggle to progress in careers or gain more qualifications.

42% of women in paid employment are part time (12% for men)

Radical feminists- men are the main people who benefit as the inequalities are due to the patriarchy. the family reinforces and reproduces male domination.

Marxist feminists- capitalism benefits as women provide free work and consume goods and services

Caroline Garrell, women returning after maternity leave

highly qualified women are discriminated against after returning to work after maternity leave.

• nicknamed Jelly Heads

• have to accept lower status downgraded postions

• do not fight it as could face further labelling and discrimination

dark Side of the family

Feminists argue that families are patriarchal with an imbalance of power that disadvantages women.

The cumulative effects of inequality manifest into the dark side of the family which challenges the idealised view of the cereal packet family stereotype.

e.g. physical abuse, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, female on male abuse, children absuing parents, child abuse, neglect of the elderly, forced marriage, rape in marriage, divorce disputes, restraining orders, economic control, decision making, murder and family related violence

Due to the private nature of the family, accurate evidence on the extent of violence and abuse within the family is difficult to obtain, and fear/ shame means that many incidents are covered up.

Primarily women and children are on the receiving end, and men are the main perpetrators.

emotional abuse

Emotional abuse- verbal assault, dominance, control, isolation, ridicule or the use of intimate knowledge for degradation.

targets emotional and psychological wellbeing of victim

contribute to depression and low self esteem

Gaslighting- making the victim doubt their own reality, memories and perception

Isolation- preventing victim for accessing services, educational and social opportunities and seeing friends

failure to respect privacy e.g. readings person’s emails, going through belongings

NSPCC: research with 2275 young people, 1/5 have been emotionally abused

punished by a prison sentence up to 5 years.

• 90% done by parents, 60% done by mum

child abuse

physical, sexual, emotional and/or psychological maltreatment of a child

neglect- child or young person not looked after properly e.g. food, clothing, medically

• 1 in 4 girls, 1 in 13 boys

physical abuse- purposely hurting a child or young person e.g. hitting, burning, drowning

sexual abuse- child or young person asked/ forced to take part in or watch sexual activity

emotional abuse- child or young person made to feel worthless, wrong, bullied or scared

Seymour, Feminist

child sexual abuse in an expression of male supremacy due to the patriarchy

the patriarchy provides male with social opportunities to commit child sexual abuse

hard to adequately explain what motivates males to commit this

murder and family related violence

person of sound mind unlawfully killing a human being with intent to kill or cause grevious bodily harm

most common on parent to child

victims often have a kind of vulnerability

Men who murder their families

• 91% of perpetrators of familicide were men

• most had access to a gun

• most had previously domestically abused

• most had access to a gun, and said they most likely would not have comitted this without access

• most had previously domestically abused

• 40% “jealous substance abuser”

Fran Ansley, marxist feminist

• women are “takers of shit” as being a housewife involves absorbing the frustration their husband feels due to alienation/ exploitation at work.

• instead of men’s anger being aimed at capitalism, women suffer domestic abuse and violence.

• on average: female victims suffer 35 assaults over 7 years before informing government agency.

forced marriage

face physical pressure to marry (threats, violence) or emotional and psychological pressure- illegal in the UK,

• 2023, marriage and civil partnership minimum age act- 16 → 18

• 2019: 80% of victims female

• 2021: 22 million people living in a forced marriage

marital rape

• before 1992, forced sexual activity within marriage was not illegal

• the wife was considered to have provided onoing consent through the contract of marriage

• 1991: R vs R changed marital rape law

  • man was convicted for raping wife

  • House of Lords unanimously decided to overwhelm existing law

- women cannot be charged with comitting rape (penil penetration), but that is sexual assault or coercion