Families and Households: Couples, Gender Roles, and Inequalities Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering sociology concepts, key studies, and sociologists regarding conjugal roles, domestic division of labour, decision-making, resources, and domestic violence.

Instrumental Role

The male breadwinner role identified by Parsons (1955) in functionalist sociology, argued to be biologically based and functional for family and society.

Expressive Role

The female nurturer and carer role identified by Parsons (1955), which functionalists argue is biologically grounded to meet the emotional needs of the family.

Segregated Conjugal Roles

A form of marital division of labour identified by Bott (1957) where husbands and wives have distinct, separate roles (breadwinner/homemaker) and spend leisure time separately.

Joint Conjugal Roles

A form of marital division of labour identified by Bott (1957) where partners share domestic responsibilities, childcare, and leisure time.

Symmetrical Family

A family structure described by Young and Willmott (1973) characterized by more equal and similar conjugal roles, working women, home-centred men, and shared leisure.

Oakley's Critique of Symmetry

Ann Oakley's (1974) feminist finding that Young and Willmott exaggerated male assistance in domestic work, noting that male 'help' often amounted to minor tasks like ironing their own shirt once a week.

Dual Burden

The responsibility carried by women who perform both paid employment and unpaid domestic work.

Triple Shift

A term coined by Duncombe and Marsden (1995) referring to the three simultaneous burdens carried by working women: paid work, domestic labour, and emotion work.

Cultural Explanation of Division of Labour

The view that patriarchal norms and gender role socialisation dictate that women perform more domestic labour because society expects it of them.

Material Explanation of Division of Labour

The view that women do more domestic labour because they generally earn less than men, making it economically rational for men to focus on paid work while women do domestic work.

Gender Scripts

Socialised expectations outlining distinct masculine and feminine roles; Dunne (1999) found that lesbian couples lacked these scripts, leading to a more equal division of labour.

Allowance System

An income control method identified by Pahl and Vogler (1993) where men give their non-working wives a set budget from which to meet family needs.

Pooling System

An income control method identified by Pahl and Vogler (1993) where partners have joint responsibility for spending, such as maintaining a joint bank account.

Edgell's Decision-Making Study (1980)

Research on professional couples showing that men retained final say over very important decisions, important decisions were made jointly, and wives made less important decisions.

Personal Life Perspective on Money

A perspective (Nyman 2003, Smart 2007) emphasizing the individual meanings couples attach to money management, arguing control of money does not automatically equal power or inequality.

Under-Reporting of Domestic Violence

The phenomenon where fewer than a third of domestic assaults are reported to police; Yearnshire (1997) found women suffer an average of 35 assaults before reporting.

Under-Recording of Domestic Violence

The failure of police to formally log or prosecute domestic abuse due to viewing the family as a private sphere or assuming victims are free to leave.

Radical Feminist Explanation of Domestic Violence

The perspective that domestic violence is an inevitable feature of patriarchal society used by men to control and oppress women.

Dobash and Dobash

Sociologists who found domestic violence was often triggered when husbands felt their authority was challenged, arguing that marriage legitimates violence.

Materialist Explanation of Domestic Violence

The perspective (Wilkinson and Pickett 2010) attributing domestic violence to social inequality and resource shortages, which generate stress within families.

Ansley's View on Domestic Violence (1972)

A Marxist feminist argument that male workers exploited by capitalism absorb frustration at work and take it out as violence against their wives.

Boulton (1983)

Sociologist who argued research must distinguish who is ultimately responsible for childcare tasks versus who performs them, finding less than 20% of husbands took a major role.

Dex and Ward (2007)

A study showing that while fathers were involved in specific childcare tasks, only 1% took primary responsibility for caring for a sick child.

Braun et al (2011)

A study finding that most fathers were 'background fathers' operating under a 'provider ideology' rather than acting as primary carers.