family - power and inequality

domestic division of labour

the way tasks are divided in a household, between its members

gender ideology

gender roles influence how partners participate in DDOL. where couples have traditional beliefs about male and female roles, women do more domestic labour than in households where beliefs reflect sexual equality. In households where partners hold conflicting beliefs, men do less domestic work. 75% of men and women believe the DDOL to be very fair or somewhat fair.

UK time use survey and nPower 2002 study and children’s contributions

UK time use survey

• studied 6500 households and asked them to keep a diary of how they spent their time during one weekday and one weekend day. found that men do 2 hours 20 minutes of housework and women did 4 hours.

nPower 2002 study

• found women do 2 hours a day whereas men do just under 1 hour a day however men are now doing more than ever before while women do less. In payed employment men do 45 hours per week and 5.5 hours of housework and women do 30 hours per week and 19 hours of housework.

children make a small contribution, pre-schoolers do the least while 20 years olds do approx 2.5 hours a week. girl average 5 times as much housework as boys. boys were given more money than girls.

Young and Willmott symmetrical family

used questionnaires to research the domestic division of labour within 6000 families in East London. What they found was a significant shift in conjugal roles in traditional nuclear families. They concluded that there had been a march of progress with the DDOL, becoming more symmetrical with families moved from segregated conjugal roles to integrated roles.

segregated vs integrated conjugal roles

segregated conjugal roles

• clearly defined roles

• men take responsibility for being the breadwinner, making major decisions, and doing heavier technical jobs around the home like household repairs.

• women are mainly housewives with responsibiltiies for housework, shopping, cooking and childcare

• partners are likely to have separate friends and leisure activities.

integrated conjugal roles

• flexible roles

• both partners likely to be in paid employment

• household chores and childcare are shared

• female partners are taking on traditional male jobs such as household repairs

• partners share common friends, leisure activities

principle of stratified diffusion

Young and Willmottt found that these social changes were first occurring in upper classes. Then as they came to be seen as the norm, the pattern of change filtered down to middle class and then working class

reasons for change from segregated to integrated

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

2. working conditions - decreasing male mortality rates and lower unemployment rates

3. geographic mobility - families moving around more which means there us weaker support network

4. less children - enables women to work. income equality

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

Elizabeth Bott

• studied changes in conjugal roles

• most important factor influencing integration for segregation of conjugal roles is your social network

• if couples had a tight knit support network, they acted as social control that prevented them from drifting from traditional segregated roles. Nuclear family is more geographically mobile and social networks are weaker, so the move to symmetry follows this pattern.

commercialisation of housework

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

Silver and Schor technology and services

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

technological - makes housework less time consuming and easier, means that it is less skilled which encourages men and children to do more

services - cuts down on amount of time needed for everyday tasks. 80% of British families regularly shop online. top purchases for women are food, medicine and clothes which all benefit wider family.

death of the housewife

women who are working or live with m/c male breadwinners can afford these so housework is reduced. m/c women trap w/c women in a “burden of pain” by paying them to take over domestic duties they either don’t have time for or don’t want to do.

what is unpaid domestic work like

• it is monotonous, boring with no “clocking on or off” and is solitary isolated activity with no workplaces.

• based on emotional relationships, with no employment contract, workers rights and no chance to go on strike.

• no qualifications needed but work is unpaid and there are no benefits such as pensions, sick pay or holidays.

• it has little status and is not seen as real work at all, with either very little or no recognition from wider society.

Value of a parent ONS

If the time spent open unpaid work was valued at the same average pay rates as equivalent jobs, it would be worth £700 billion.

Stephen Edgell

one of the most important domestic tasks is decision making that will effect the whole family. Edgell found that women only had sole responsibility for decision in relatively unimportant areas like decoration, food, and kid clothes. women are less likely than men to have the final say on most important decisions like moving house or taking out loans.

2008 British social attitudes survey

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

• 40% of British men felt that housework was a women’s job

• 20% of men admitted they never cleaned, 1/3 said they’d never cleaned a bathroom

• 77% of women took most of the responsibility for household food shopping

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

Arlie Hochschild second shift

• working women still end up taking on the role of the housewife

• all women experience a period of full time housework, some women may only return to work part time when their youngest child starts school

• used systematic sampling

• married couples who both worked with children under 6

• non-participant overt observation with interviews found that women better at multitasking, families were happier when they shared second shift and the workplace is designed for men with stay at home wives (9-5)

Ann Oakley

• families cannot be symmetrical due to the double shift and so reject their claim that there has been a march of progress for women

• Y+W over exaggerated 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

• when the housewife role became cemented it excluded women from the workplace and confine them within the home

Duncombe and Marsden triple shift

• women have to take on emotional work required to keep a family together like a mediator

• e.g. after separation/divorce 1/3 of men had little contact with kids and 1/8 had no contact

women’s careers

• continued responsibility for housework and childcare often means women's career suffer which holds back poewer of all women.

• many women are restricted in the jobs they can do and hours they can work due to the pressure of maintaining the home and childcare.

• these family commitments allow little opportunity for working mothers to concentrate on the actions necessary for progressing their careers or gaining qualifications.

returning to work as a mother: Caroline Gatrell “Jelly Heads”

• found that highly qualified women were discriminated against after returning to work after maternity leave.

• found that many were labelled as “jelly heads” by colleagues and were given no option but to accept lower status and downgraded positions.

• although this is illegal many women don’t fight against it as they could face further labelling such as being “awkward” and facing further discrimination.

working part time

• 75% of part time workers are women

• 42% of women in paid employment work part time compared to 12% of men

• presence of dependant children and age of youngest child are most important factors that dictate how many hours women work

who benefits the most from this according to radical f and marxist f

RF argues that men are the main benefiters as inequalities in domestic labour are part of the problem of patriarchy. the family reinforces and reproduces male domination and power

MF argues that capitalism benefits most as there is a free workforce provided that also takes care of men who work in paid employment and also consume goods and services.

ignoring the dark side of the family

feminists of all kinds are very critical of functionalist and new right views that the idealised nuclear family is the most desirable structure. the cumulative effects of inequality in the family manifest themselves in what they call the dark side of the family which challenges the idealised view of the warm and supportive cereal packet family

how dark is the family

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 or shame means that incidents are covered up. 91% of DV crimes are against women, 83% of DV victims subjected to more than 10 crimes are women

Fran Ansley “takers of shit”

Fran Ansley is a marxist feminist who said that women are “takers of shit” as the role of housewives involve absorbing the frustrations their husband feel because of alienation at work. instead of men’s anger being aimed at capitalism, women suffer DV in silence to maintain family unit. Fran found that female victims will suffer an average of 35 assaults for an average period of 7 years.

forced marriage

forced marriage is when you face physical, emotional, or psychological pressure to marry. can be made to feel like your bringing shame to your family. its illegal in the UK. to try and reduce this, the governement introduce the marriage and civil partnership minimum age act which change age of legal marriage from 16 with parental consent to 18. In UK 80% of victims are female and annually there are 1400 cases.

rape in marriage

before 1992 forced sexual activity within marriage wasn’t illegal. the wife was considered to have provided ongoing consent to intercource through the contract of marriage.

the case of R v R in 1991 changed marital rape law in the uk. a man was convicted of attempting to rape his wife. after numerous appeals, the House of Lords unanimously agreed to overturn the existing law and upheld the husbands conviction for rape.

rape, intimidation and control: Susan Brownmiller

radical fem Susan Brownmiller argues that patriarchy creates an ideology of rape designed as a conscious process of intimidation. women are therefore kept in a sate of fear and even men who do not rape women benefit from the fear and anxiety rape causes.

emotional abuse

includes humiliating, constantly criticising , threatening or exposing child to distressing events. people being emotionally abused may seem unconfident or struggle to control their emotions. 1 in 15 children have been emotionally abused

child abuse

includes the physical, sexual emotional or psychological maltreatment or neglect of a child. many cases are done by someone the child knows like a parent or relative. signs include withdrawal from activities, nightmares, self harm or suicide attempts, or unexplained injuries. 1 in 4 girls and 1 in 13 boys in the uk are estimated to experience child sexual abuse

murder and family related violence

242 domestic abuse related deaths between April 2022 and march 2023. majority of victims are females aged 25-54 and majority of perpetrators are male. 4 in 5 perpetrators were already known to police before homicide and 3 in 5 was for domestic abuse.

stats about poverty

• 21% of the population were estimated to be living in relative poverty

• 33% of households lack three or more basic necessities like being able to feed, and clothe themselves and heat their homes

• 1 in 3 can’t afford to heat their homes

• 1 in 5 have to borrow money in order to pay for day to day needs

women and poverty

• women are more likely to sacrifice their own standard of living to provide for their kids

• women are more likely to be in low paid/ part time work

• women are the majority of homemakers so have people who are dependant on them

• women are more likely to be lone parents with sole responsibility for children

children in poverty

• 1.3 million UK children under five now live in poverty

• children are much more likely to live in low income households than either pensioneers or working age adults

• child poverty has negative effects on their health and psychological development as well as leading to wider social problems such as crime and anti-social behaviour.

cycle of deprivation

• Coates and Silburn argue that poverty is cumulative, in the sense that one aspect of poverty can lead to further poverty

• this builds up a vicious cycle which is hard to escape

• while the rich can pass down wealth through inheritance, the poor can only pass down poverty.

• poor family - poor housing/diet - ill health - absence from school - failing exams - unemployment - poverty.

The Beveridge Report

• published in 1942 and begun the welfare state

• recommended the development of state-run services aimed at the destruction of idleness, want, disease, ignorance and squalor

womb to tomb

• in his report Beveridge argued that every individual in the UK should have the right to be cared for by the state for their entire lives.

• the welfare state was established in 1948 and provides services that are free at the time of use that are payed for by taxes.

benefits

• some are universal, like maternity pay, child benefit, and state pension, this means that everyone can claim them no matter their situation

• however most are selective and are only available to those who are declared eligible via means testing. e.g. disability, job seekers allowance and housing benefits

• each applicants situation is assessed to see which benefit they qualify for and how much they should receive.

unclaimed benefits

• many people do not claim their benefits.

• in 2012 between £7.5-£12.3 billion were unclaimed

• this is often due to the complexity of the system, people lack knowledge of their rights and some think the benefits aren’t worth the effort it takes

the new right perspective

• conservative governments are being influenced by the new right and this means they want to cut welfare spending, and privatise some services to open up competition in an attempt to raise quality.

• in an attempt to tackle a “culture of dependency” they have introduced a range of policies like: benefits for disabled were cut, childcare payments were cut and housing benefit was capped.