Domestic division of labour

What is domestic decision of labour?

Chores that are completed around the house → laundry, cooking

What is decision making in the family?

how finances influence financial decisions as well as day to day decision and life changing ones

What did Parsons argue?

P: Parsons argues that there are clear biologically determined roles in the traditional nuclear family

E: Wife has an expressive role → performs primary socialisation, homemaker, meets emotional needs

Husband has an instrumental role → breadwinner and disciplinarian

E: This is best suited to the needs of the family and society → creates more social cohesion and stability

L: Functionalists and New Right believe that this prevents the breakdown of society

E: Willmott and Young argue that this is outdated → women now work and men have a greater share of domestic tasks

Joint and segregated conjugal roles

P: Bott distinguishes two types of roles within a marriage.

E: Segregated conjugal roles is based on Parsons traditional roles → explain

Joint congeal roles → couples share housework and childcare equally and spend leisure time together

E: Willmott and Young identified a pattern of segregated conjugal roles in WC extended families in Bethnal Green → men were the breadwinners and women stayed at home → men had little part in the home life and spent leisure time with workmates and females spent it with female kin

Symmetrical families

P: Willmott and Young have argued a ‘march of progress’ view that has made family life more equal. The family is more symmetrical than ever.

E: There has been a shift towards joint conjugal roles → women now go out to work (may be part time) → around 50% to 70 from 1972 to 2020 → raised women’s position and status and they have more power and are no longer financially dependent → raised standards

E: Men are now expected to help with housework and childcare and couples tend to spend leisure time together → 80 years ago a quarter vs 4% today → more leisure time due to labour saving devices → dishwasher robot vacuum

L: Many factors are interlinked → may be more with MC as they can afford labour saving devices so makes housework easier and encourages men to do more → Willmott and Young found that this is more likely in geographically, isolated and affluent families → Gershuny argues that women working full time leads to a more equal division in labour

E: not the same in all cultures

Feminist view

P: Feminists argue that little has changed and that women and men are still unequal as women do most of the housework → family still meets the need of men and denies the needs of women

E: For example, Oakley criticises Young and Willmott as she argues that their claims of a ‘symmetrical family’ are exaggerated→ most husbands interviewed ‘helped’ their wives at least once a week → taking kids out for a day → did not view this as their responsibility but a favour → only 15% of husbands had a high level of participation in housework and only 25% had a high level in childcare

E: Men were more likely to take the fun parts of childcare → women lost the reward and were left with time for housework

L

E: Boultons findings further supported this. Fewer than 20% of husbands had a major role in childcare

Triple shift

P: Duncombe and Marsden argued for the ‘triple shift’ of housework, paid work and emotion work → gives women far less leisure time.

E: Women do 30% more domestic labour and 50% more childcare. Additionally, women are required to manage the feelings of family members, like handling arguments or jealously between siblings, while at the same time needing to handle their own emotions. This acts as a heavy burden on women

X women are far more likely to work part time than men

Taking responsibility for quality time

P: Women have the responsibility of scheduling the family’s ’quality time’ according to Southerton.

E: This has been one more difficult ily in today’s late modern society as the emergence of a 24/7 society and flexible work. This has led to work becoming ‘deroutinised’.

E: Additionally, Southerton argues that men and women have similar amount of leisure time → different experiences of it → women have more fragmented leisure time that is likely to be interrupted by childcare → women multitask more due to experiencing the dual burden of

X outdated

What are the two explanations for the gender division of labour according to Crompton and Lynette?

1. Cultural explanation of inequality

2. Material explanation of inequality

Cultural explanation

P: The cultural explanation of inequality, suggested by Crompton and Lynette, argues that the division of labour is determined by patriarchal norms and values that shape gender roles.

E: Women will perform more domestic labour as this is what society expects them to do and what they’ve been socialised to do.

E: Gershuny argues that couples whose parents had a more equal relationship are more likely to share housework equally among themselves → social values are adapting that women work full time and establish a new norm for men to do more

Additionally, Man Yee Kan found that younger men do more domestic work

Material explanation of inequality

P: Women generally earn less than men so it is economically rational for women to do more housework and childcare while men spend their time earning money.

E: Therefore if women going the labour force, men and women should do the same amount of domestic labour.

E: Kan found that for every 10,000 pounds a year more a woman earns, she does 2 hours less housework per week.

Additionally, Arber and Ginn found that MX women were able to buy in commercially produced products and services → labour saving devices like robot vacuums to save time

X Ramos argues that when the woman is the breadwinner and the man is unemployed she does just as much housework