Topic 1 - Couples

What is the domestic division of labour?

The roles that men and women play in relation to housework, childcare and paid work

How were the roles organised in the traditional nuclear family?

Roles of husbands and wives are segregated - separate and distinct from one another

What roles did Parsons’ (1955) identify in his definition of the traditional nuclear family?

Husband has an instrumental role, geared towards achieving success at work so he can provide for the family financially (breadwinner)

Wife has an expressive role, geared towards primary socialisation of the children and meeting the family's emotional needs. She’s the homemaker, a full-time housewife rather than a wage earner

What does Parsons argue DoL is based on?

Biological differences with women ‘naturally’ suited to the nurturing role and men to that of provider

He claims that this DoL is beneficial to both men and women, to their children and to wider society

Who have criticised Parsons?

Young and Willmott
Feminists

What do Young and Willmott argue?

Men are now taking a greater share of domestic tasks and more wives are becoming wage earners

What do Feminists argue?

Reject Pasons’ view that DoL is natural, argue it only benefits men

What are conjugal roles?

Separation of roles within household based on gender

What 2 types of conjugal roles does Bott (1957) distinguish between?

Segregated
Joint

What are segregated conjugal roles?

Where the couple have separate roles: male breadwinner and female homemaker / carer (instrumental and expressive roles)
Their leisure activities also tend to be separate

What are joint conjugal roles?

Where the couple share tasks such as housework and childcare and spend their leisure time together

What was the proecdure and findings of Young and WIllmotts study of traditional W/C extended families in Bethnal Green (1950s)?

Men = breadwinners and played little part in home life and spent leisure time w workmates in pubs and working men’s clubs
Women = full-time housewives w sole responsibility for housework and childcare, helped by female relatives
Limited leisure women had was also spent w female kin

What view do Y&W take?

March of progress view

What do Y&W see family life as? What trend do they identify?

Gradually improving for all its members, becoming more equal and democratic
Long-term trend away from segregated roles, towards joint and ‘symmetrical family’

What is the symmetrical family?

Roles of husbands and wives aren’t identical but much more similar

What are the features of the symmetrical family?

Women now go out to work, although this may be part-time and not full
Men now help w housework and childcare
Couples now spend their leisure time together instead of separately w workmates or female relatives

What did Y&W find in their study of families?

Symmetrical more common among younger couples (geographically and socially isolated, and the more affluent)

What major social changes do Y&W see as the reason for the rise of the symmetrical nuclear family?

Changes in women;s position - married women going out to work
Geographical mobility - more couples living away from communities in which they grew up
New technology and labour-saving devices
Higher standards of living

How are the major social changes inter-linked?

Married women bringing a second wage into the home raises the family’s standard of living, meaning the couple can afford more labour-saving devices
This makes housework easier and encourages men to do more

Why do feminists reject the MoP view?

Men and women remain unequal within family and women still do most of the housework
They see this inequality as stemming from the fact that the family and society are male-dominated or patriarchal
Women occupy a subordinate and dependent role within family and wider society

How does Oakley (1974) criticise Y&W’s view that family is now symmetrical?

Exaggerated - Most husbands interviewed ‘helped’ wives at least once a week but this could only mean taking children for a walk or making breakfast on one occasion
For Oakley, this is hardly convincing evidence of symmetry

What did Oakley find in her own research on housewives?

Some evidence of husbands helping in home but no evidence of trend towards symmetry
Only 15% had a high lvl of housework participation
Only 25% in childcare

What were other findings of Oakley’s study?

Husbands more likely to share in childcare than housework but only its pleasurable aspects
Most couples defined the father’s role as one of ‘taking an interest’
A good father was one who would play w the children in the evenings and ‘take them off her hands’ on Sunday morning
However, this could mean that mothers lost the rewards of childcare e.g playing w children and were simply left w more time for housework

How does later research (Boulton) support Oakley’s findings?

Boulton (1983) found fewer than 20% of husbandsh ad a major role in childcare
Y&W exaggerate men’s contribution by looking at the tasks involved in childcare rather than responsibilities
A father might help w specific tasks but it was almost always the mother responsible for child’s security and well-being

Similarly, what did Warde and Hetherington (1993) find in their research?

sex-typing of domestic tasks remained strong e.g wives 30x more likely to be last person to have done washing, husbands 4x more likely to be last person to wash car

In general, found men would only carry out routine ‘female’ tasks when partners not around
But did find evidence of slight change of attitude among younger men
No longer assumed women should do the housework

Today, many more wives go out to work, what 2 qs does this trend towards both partners working raise?

Is it leading to a more equal DoL w 'a ‘new man’ taking responsibility and doing an equal share of the housework and childcare? This is a MoP view
or
Does it simply mean women now have to carry a ‘dual burden’ of paid work as well as domestic work? This is a feminist view

What is the MoP view?

Women going out to work is leading to a more equal DoL at home, men are becoming more involved in housework and childcare just as women are becoming more involved in paid work outside the home

What does Gershuny (1994) argue?

Women working full-time is leading to a more equal DoL in the home
Using time studies, found these women did less domestic work than other women

Similarly to Gershuny, what did Sullivan’s (2000) analysis of nationally representative data find?

A trend towards women doing a smaller share of domestic work and men doing more
+ an increase in no. of couples w equal DoL and that men were participating more in traditional ‘women’s’ tasks
These trends reflect changes in attitudes to the traditional DoL

What did British Social Attitudes survey (BSA) find in 2013?

A fall in the no. of ppl who think it’s the man’s job to earn money and woman’s job to look after home and family
In 1984, 45% of men and 41% of women agreed w this view
by 2012, only 13% and 12% agreed

In the view of feminists, wha’s the impact of women going into paid work?

Hasn’t led to greater equality in DoL
Little sign of the ‘new man’ who does equal share of housework & childcare
Women now carry a dual burden as BSA survey shows

What did BSA survey find in 2012?

Men on average did 8 hrs of housework a week, whereas women did 13 hrs
Similarly, men spent 10 hrs on care for family members, whereas women spent 23 hrs
Overall, women did twice as much as men
60% of women felt this DoL was unjust as they were doing more than their fair share

What’s the 1 thing BSA surveys don’t measure?

Qualitative differences in the tasks men and women perform

What does Allan (1985) argue?

Women’s tasks (washing and cleaning) are less intrinsically satisfying

What’s another problem w BSA surveys?

Often focus only on easily quantifiable aspects (who performs which tasks) or how much time they spend doing them
Useful but tells us nothing abt who takes responsibility for ensuring tasks are done

What studies is Boulton’s view (usually mother who takes responsibility for child) supported by?

Ferri and Smith (1996) - Fathers took responsibility for childcare in fewer than 4% of families
Dex and Ward (2007) - Although fathers had quite high lvls of involvement w 3 yr olds (78% played w children), when it came to caring for a sick child, only 1% took main responsibility

What’s another aspect of taking responsibility for other family members? Who coined the term?

Emotional work - Hochschild (2013)

What is emotional work?

Managing emotions and feelings of family members (handling jealousies and squabbles between siblings, ensuring everyone is kept happy and so on while at the same time exercising control over their own emotions)

What do Duncombe and Marsden argue? (1995)

Women have to perform a ‘triple shift’ of housework, paid work and emotion work

According to Southerton (2011), what’s another responsibility of mothers?

Coordinating, scheduling and managing the family’s ‘quality time’ together

Why has coordinating and scheduling quality time become more difficult in today’s late modern society?

Emergence of 24/7 society and flexible working patterns
These changes led to ppl’s time being more fragmented and ‘de-routinised’

What doesn’t show up in the quantitative measures that time studies such as Gershuny’s use?

Being ‘pushed for time’

What does Southerton also note?

Although some studies now show men and women have more or less equal amounts of leisure time, they have different experiences of it
Men more likely to experience uninterrupted leisure time while women’s is punctuated by child care
Women more likely to multi-task than men, indicating women are carrying a dual burden in which they face an increased volume of activities to be managed

What 2 different explanations for unequal DoL do Crompton and Lyonette identify? (2008)

Cultural or ideological explanation of inequality - DoL determined by patriarchal norms and values that shape gender roles in our culture
Women perform more domestic labour simply bc of society’s expectations and socialisation

Material or economic explanation of inequality - The fact women generally earn less than men means it’s economically rational for women to do more of the housework and childcare while men spend more of their time earning money

What is evidence for the cultural explanation?

Gershuny (1995) - couples whose parents had a more equal relationship are more likely to share housework equally themselves
Suggests parental role models are important
Social values gradually adapting to the fact women are now working full-time, establishing a new norm that men should do more domestic work

Man Yee Kan (2001) - younger men do more domestic work, similarly Future Foundation found most men claimed to do more housework than father (generational shift in behaviour occuring)

BSA survey (2013) - < 10% of under-35s agreed w trad DoL compared to 30% of over-65s (long-term change in norms, values and attitudes)

Dunne (1999) - Lesbian couples had more symmetrical relationships due to absence of traditional heterosexual ‘gender scripts’ (norms that set out diff gender roles men and women expected to play)

What is evidence for the material explanation of women joining labour force and earning as much as partners leading to equal DoL?

Kan - for every 10k a year more a woman ears, she does 2 hrs less housework per week

Arber and Ginn (1995) - M/C women more able to buy in commerically produced products and services (labour-saving devices, ready meals, domestic help and childcare)

Ramos (2003) - Where woman is full-time breadwinner and man unemployed, he does as much domestic labour as her

Sullivan - Working full-time rather than part-time makes biggest difference in terms of how much domestic work each partner does

However, women continue to earn less than men
In 7/8 households, men earn more as women are more likely to work part-time

What does Cromption include based on women continuing to earn less than men?

No immediate prospect of a more equal DoL if this depends on economic equality between sexes

There’s inequality in who does what in the home and also inequality in?

How family’s resources are shared out between men and women (linked to who controls family’s income and who has power to make decisions abt how it’s spent)

What do Barrett and McIntosh (1991) note?

Men gain far more from women’s domestic work than they give back in financial support
Financial support husbands give to their wives is often unpredictable and comes w ‘strings’ attached
Men usually make the decisions abt spending on important items

What do the feminist sociologists Pahl and Vogler (1993) identify as 2 main types of control over family income?

Allowance system - Men give their wives an allownace out of which they have to budget to meet family’s needs w man retaining any surplus income for himself
Pooling - Both partners have access to income and joint responsbility for expenditure e.g joint bank account
Pooling is on the increase and is now the most common money management system

How are men given more power in pooling?

Pooled income controlled by the husband (men get more power in major financial decisions but not as much as in allowance system)

Similarly to Pahl and Vogler, what did Hardlil’s (1997) study of 30 dual-career professional couples find? Whose observation does Hardlil’s support?

Important decisions usually taken either by man alone or jointly
man’s career took priority when deciding whether to move house for a new job

Supports Finch’s (1983) observation that women’s lives tend to be structured around husbands’ careers

What did Edgell’s (1980) study of professional couples find?

Very important decisions - those involving finance, change of job or moving house, either taken by husband alone or jointly but w husband having final say
Important decisions - children’s education / where to go on holiday taken jointly or seldolm by the wife alone
Less important decisions - choice of home decor / children’s clothes / food purchases usually made by wife

What does Edgell argue for the reason men are likely to take the decisions?

They earn more
Women usually earn less than their husbands and, being dependent on them economically, have less say in decision-making

Who found some evidence of a limited move towards greater equality in financial decision-making?

Laurie and Gershuny

What did Laurie and Gershuny (2000) find?

By 1995, 70% of couples said they had an equal say in decisions
Significantly, though, they found women who were high earning, well qualified professionals were more likely to have an equal say

Provides support for economic / material exp of gender inequality

Why do feminists argue inequalities in decision-making are not simply the result of inequalities in earnings?

In patriarchal society, cultural definition of men as decision-makers is deeply ingrained and instilled through gender role socialisation
Until definition challenged, decision-making is likely to remain unequal

Reflects cultural exp of gender inequality

What do the ideas of cohabiting couples being less lilely to pool their money (Vogler et al) point to?

Needing to understand the meaning of money for couples

What does Nyman (2003) note about the meaning of money?

No automatic, fixed or natural meaning and different couples can define it in different ways, reflecting the nature of the relationship

What does PLP focus on about the meaning of money?

Meanings couples give to who controls the money

From this pov, the meanings money may have in relationships can’t be taken for granted e.g while we might assume 1 partner controlling the money is a sign of inequality in the relationship, for some couples it may not have this meaning

What evidence is there that same-sex couples often give a different meaning to the control of money in the relationship? Who found this?

Carol Smart (2007) - some gay men and lesbians attached no importance to who controlled the money and were perfectly happy to leave this to their partners
Didn’t see the control of money as meaning either equality / inequality

Similarly to Carol Smart, what did Weeks et al (2001) find? What does pooling reflect?

Typical pattern was pooling some money for household spending, together w separate accounts for personal spending

Pooling w separate accounts for personap spending reflects co-independence where there’s sharing but each partner retains control over some money and maintains a sense of independence, similar to pattern among cohabiting couples found by Vogler et al

According to Smart, why is there greater freedom for same-sex couples to do what suits them as a couple?

They don’t enter relationships w same ‘historical, gendered, heterosexual baggage of cultural meanings around money’ that see money as a source of power
hence, PLP argues it’s essential to always start from personal meanings of actors involved in the situation

What does the Home Office (2013) define DV and abuse as?

Any incident / pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive or threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are or have been intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality

(Can include psychological, physical, sexual, financial and emotional violence or abuse)

What’s a common view of DV?

Behaviour of a few disturbed or ‘sick’ individuals, and that its causes are psychological rather than social

Why has the view of DV being psychological rather than social been challenged?

Too widepsread - Women’s Aid Federation (2014) - DV accounts for between a 6th and a quarter of all recorded violent crime
+ Crime Survey for England and Wales (2013) - 2m ppl reported having been victims of DV during previous year

Doesn’t occur randomly - follows particular social patterns w social causes (mainly violence by men against women)
Coleman et al (2007) - women more likely than men to have experienced ‘intimate violence’ across all 4 types of abuse - partner, family, sexual assault and stalking
Coleman and Osborne (2010 - 2 women a week are killed by a partner / former

What did Dobash and Dobash’s research in Scotland, based on police and couret records and interviews w women in women’s refuges find?

Women being slapped, pushed, beaten, raped or killed by husbands
Could be set off by what a husband saw as a challenge to his authority e.g “why are you late home for a meal”
Marriage legitimates violence against women by conferring power and authority on husbands and dependency on wives

What do sociologists find about the very significant gender gap in DV?

Walby and Allen (2004) - women more likely to be victims of multiple incidents of abuse and sexual violence

Ansara and Hindin (2011) - women suffered more severe violence and control, w more serious psychological effects + more likely than men to be fearful of partner

Dar (2013) - can be difficult to count separate DV incidents as it may be continuous (continuous threat) or occur so often victim can’t reliably count instances

Why do official statistics on DV understate the true extent of the problem?

1. Victims may be unwilling to report to police
Yearnshire (1997) - on average a woman suffers 35 assaults before making a report (DV is the violent crime least likely to be reported)
Dar - victims believe it’s not a matter for the police / too trivial

2. Police may be reluctant to record / investigate as they aren’t prepared to become involved in the family (Cheal - 1991)

What 3 assumptions do the police make abt family life?

Family is a private sphere so access to it by state agencies should be limited
Family is a good thing and so agencies tend to neglect ‘darker side’
Individuals are free agents, woman is free to leave if experiencing abuse
However, tihs isn’t true as male violence is often coupled w economic power so abused women are often financially dependent and unable to leave

What are 2 types of explanation of DV?

Rad fem exp - emphasises role of patriarchal ideas, cultural values and institutions
Materialist exp - emphasises economic factors (lack of resources)

What do rad. fems. interpret findings such as those of Dobash and Dobash as evidence of?

Patriarchy

What’s an example of rad. fems. interpreting findings as evidence of patriarchy?

Millet and Firestone (1970) argue all societies have been founded on patriarchy
→ Key division b/w men and women
→ Men are the enemy: oppressors and exploiters of women

What do rad. fems. see family and marriage as?

The key institutions in patriarchal society and main source of women’s oppression

Within the family, how do men dominate women?

Through DV / threat of it

For rad. fems. what is an inevitable feature of patriarchal society?

Widespread DV
→ Serves to preserve the power that all men have over all women

What do rad. fems. link patterns of DV to?

Dominant social norms abt marriage

In rad. fem. view, what helps to explain the reluctance of police and courts to deal effectively w DV cases?

Male domination of state institutions

What does Elliot (1996) argue?

Rejects rad. fem. view that all men benefit from violence against women
→ Not all men are aggressive, believes rad. fems ignore how most men are opposed to DV

What do rad. fems. fail to explain?

Female violence, including child abuse by women and violence against male partners and within lesbian relationships

What did the Crime Survey for England and Wales (2013) find?

18% of men (2.9 mil) have experienced DV since the age of 16

What do Rad. fem. wrongly assume?

Uses patriarchy to explain why most victims of DV are women but wrongly assumes all women are equally at risk of patriarchal violence
→ Explains why its women and not men who are victims but fail to explain which women are most likely to be victims

What does evidence from the Office for National Statistics (2014) suggest?

Women from some social groups face a greater risk of DV. These include:
Young women / Those in lowest social classes and those living in most deprived areas / those on low incomes or in financial difficulties / those living in shared and rented accomodation / those w high lvls of alcohol consumption or using illegal drugs / those w a long term illness or disability

What do statistics show about children from lower social classes?

Appear at higher risk of abuse and violence
+ Men who suffer DV are also likely to belong to these groups

What does the materialist explanation of DV focus on?

Economic and material factors such as inequalities in income and housing to explain why some groups are more at risk than others

What do Wilkinson and Pickett (2010) see DV as?

The result of stress on family members caused by social inequality

What does inequality mean?

Some families have fewer resources than others

What are those on low incomes or living in overcrowded accomodation likely to experience?

Higher lvls of stress
→ reduces chances of maintaining stable, caring relationships and increases the risk of conflict and violence

What are examples of inequality leading to higher lvls of stress?

Worries abt money, jobs n housing may spill over into domestic conflict as tempers become frayed
Lack of money and time restricts ppls social circle and reduces social support for those under stress

What do the findings of Wilkinson and Pickett show?

Not all ppl are equally in danger of suffering DV
→ Those w less power, status, wealth or income are often at greatest risk

How is Wilkinson and Pickett’s approach useful?

Useful in showing how social inequality produces stress and triggers conflict and violence in families
As those in lower social classes face greater hardship and thus stress, this helps to explain the class differences in stats on DV

Unlike the rad. fem. approach, what do Wilkinson and Pickett not do?

Explain why women rather than men are the main victims

How do Marxist feminists see inequality causing DV?

Ansley (1972) describes women as ‘takers of shit’
→ Argues DV is product of capitalism:
Male workers are exploited at work and take out their frustration on their wives

How is the marx. fem. view helpful in explaining DV and what does it fail to do?

Helps to explain why DV is male violence against females
However → fails to explain why not all male workers commit acts of violence against their partners and it doesn’t account for cases of female DV

1. Applying material from Item A and your knowledge, eval the view DoL in couples is now equal (20)

Include housework and childcare - who’s responsible for organising it / whether tasks are gendered / DoL in same-sex couples etc
Develop points from item - dual burden / patriarchy / impact of women’s paid works

Use issues such as:
Emotion work and triple shift / ‘quality time’ / bg fathers / gender scripts etc

Use studies such as:
Gershuny / Sullivan / Kan / Boulton / Braun et al / British Social Attitudes surveys / Dex and Ward / Crompton and Lyonette / Southerton and Dunne
→ Eval how useful diff. views are in explaining the evidence (esp MoP and feminist views + material and cultural explanations

2. Applying material from Item B, analyse 2 reasons for patterns of DV (10)

Use patriachy, social disadvantage or living conditions
Chain of reasoning - In patriarchal society, men exercise power over women → DV used to ensure women fulfil subordinate roles

Use issues such as:
Rad. feminism / materialist exp. / stress / class inequality / alcohol abuse etc

Use studies such as:
Dobash and Dobash / Firestone / Wilkinson and Pickett / Cheal / Ansley / Elliot