Sociology (Family/Childhood)

Domestic Division of Labour

Show few divisions between male & female roles

What does Talcott Parsons say about Traditional Nuclear Families? (Instrumental/Expressive Roles)

Husband has an instrumental role, geared towards achieving success at work so that he can provide for his family financially.

Wife has an expressive role, geared towards primary socialisation of the children, & meeting then families & meeting the families emotional needs

What does Talcott Parsons argue about Division of Labour?

It’s based on biological differences, with women “naturally” suited to the nurturing role & men are the providers. He claims that Division of Labour is beneficial to both genders, to their children & to wider society. New Right also hold this view.

Conjugal roles

The roles played by a male and female partner in a marriage or cohabiting relationship

Integrated conjugal roles

Shows few divisions between male and female roles

Partners have a strong bond between each other & their roles are equal & democratic

Men & Women, both likely to be employed & they state responsibility for housework, shopping, cooking, childcare

Partners share common friends, leisure activities & decision making

Segregated conjugal roles

Shows a clear division and separation between male and female roles

Partners in a married relationship have clearly separated roles

Men take responsibility to bring money, heavier more technical jobs around the home, such as repairing equipment and doing DIY. Women are mainly housewives, with responsibility for housework, shopping, cooking, childcare; they’re unlikely to have full-paid employment.

Partners are less likely to have separate friends & different leisure activities.

The Symmetrical Family (Young & Will)

One in which the roles of husbands & wives, although not identical, are now much similar.

They see family life as gradually improving for all members, becoming more equal and democratic. They argue there’s been a long-term trend away from segregated conjugal roles & towards joint conjugal roles & the symmetrical family.

Women now go to work, although ts is part time than full time. Men help w/ housework & childcare. Couples now spend their leisure time together instead of separately w/ workmates or female relatives.

They found it was more common in younger couples, those who’re geographically & socially isolated.

Ts is a result of major social changes: Changes in women’s position, Geographical mobility - more couples living away from communities in which they grew up, Higher standards of living. Interlinked Factors, married women bring second wage into the home raises the families standard of living. This means the couple can afford more labour-saving devices. Ts makes housework easier & encourages men to do more.

Criticisms of Parsons (Symmetrical Family) - Young & Willmott

Studied working class extended families in East London in 1950s & found a distinct pattern of Segregated Conjugal Roles. They argue that families are gradually becoming more of a “Partnership of Equals” = Symmetrical Family.

However, they argue that families are gradually becoming more of a “Partnership of Equals”. This has led to them coining the term: “The Symmetrical Family”

In 1973, Y&W published their ideas that families are slowly becoming more equal & democratic. They used the phrase “The March of Progress” to explain this shift.

Family has strong bonds between married or cohabitating partners and the relationship is more symmetrical (equal on both sides) - less patriarchal & male dom’d & much more equally balanced partnerships

Both partners share household chores, childcare & decision making, & both partners are more likely to be in paid work.

The New Man

More caring, emotional, sharing & sensitive in attitudes to women, children & his own emotional needs, & committed to his fair share of housework & childcare.

In what ways have women’s rights changed & what has the impact been?

Women’s Equal Pay Act: Women can bring 2nd wage = Higher standard of living, more symmetry, diff attitudes to women working.

Improved status & rights of women: Improvements to women’s pos may encourage men to acknowledge them as equals rather than as simply housewives & mothers.

How has paid employment improved women’s position in the family?

Most women in paid work grow their independence & authority in the family.

Gershuny: Women moved into paid employment, men begun to do more housework. Also, the women has her own income, she’s less dependent on her male partner. Decision-making is more likely to be shared.

What ways has commercialisation of housework encouraged men to do more?

Range of consumer goods to help ease the burden of housework; washing machines, hoovers, cleaning services.

Silver & Schor: Commercialisation has taken away some of the drudgery & time consuming aspects of housework meaning it’s easier & less time consuming

Consequences of inequality: Effects of Housework & Childcare on women’s careers

Surveys suggest that women are limited in the jobs they can do and the hours they can work, as they’re expected to take main responsibility for housework & childcare

This means that women often have little opportunity for career progression, have lower pay, less security of employment

Since men experience the opposite, this gives them more authority & power in the family

Browne: Pressures and Expectations for Women to take Multiple Roles = Women Careers suffer

Women are seen as unreliable by potential employers.

It is mainly women who sacrifice their careers for their families

Disrupted patterns of work means missed bonus & pay opportunities.

About 40% of women work part-time (9% men)

Families are more likely to move home to suit the male’s job.

March of Progress View (Are couples becoming more equal?)

This view argues that women going out to work leads t more equal division of labour at home. Mne are becoming more involved in housework & childcare just as women are becoming involved in paid work out the home.

Gershuny: Women working full leads to more equal division of labour in homes. Using time studies, he found that these women did less domestic work than older women.

Sullivan: Analysis of nationally representative data (1975,1987,1997); Trend towards women doing a smaller share of dom work & men doing more. Her analysis showed an increase in num of couples w/ an equal division of labour & that men were participating more in trad “women’s” tasks.

British Social Attitudes: Fall in number of people who think it’s the man’s job to earn money & women’s job to look after home and family. 1984, 43% agreed with ts. 2017, only 8%.

Feminist View (Are couples becoming more equal?)

Women going into paid work has not led to greater equality in the division of domestic labour. There’s little sign of the “new man” who does an equal share of housework & childcare, while women carry a dual burden.

British Social Attitudes Survey: 2012, men on avg = 8h housework/week & 10h on family, women on avg = 13h housework/week & 23h on family. There fore women did twice more, 60% of women felt it was unjust bc they were doing more than their fair share.

Survery also found that couples continue to divide household tasks along trad gender lines. e.g. women more likely to do laundry, care for sick family members and do cleaning whil men more likely to do small repairs around the house.

Criticism

Survery doesn’t measure qualitiative differences in the tasks men and women perform

Allan: Argues that women’s tasks such as washing & cleaning, are less intrinsically satisfying.

Taking Responsibility for Children (Are couples becoming more equal?)

Problem: Surveys often focus on easily quantifiable aspects (who performs tasks/ how much time on them) which tells us nthn abt who takes responsibility for ensuring that the tasks are done.

Boulton: Although fathers may help by performing specific childcare tasks, it’s usually the mother who takes responsibility for the child’s security & well-being.

Ferri & Smith: Fathers took responsibility for childcare in fewer than 4% of families.

Dex & Ward: Although fathers had quite high leads of involvement w/ their 3 year olds (e.g. 78% played with their children) , when it came to covering to a sick child, only 1% of fathers took that responsibility

Stephen Edgell & Decision Making

Stephen Edgell: When it came to major purchases (where to live, which car to buy or where to go on holiday) it was the major wage earner of the household, the man, who made these decisions. Women were only allowed to make decisions on less important items (Food purchases & Children’s clothes)

Crompton and Lyonette’s explanation for Gender Divison of Labour (D.O.L)

Cultural/Ideological Explanation: D.O.L is determined by patriarchal N&V that shape gender roles in our culture. Women perform more domestic labour because that’s what society expects them to do

Material/Economical Explanation: The fact women generally earn less than men means it’s economically rational for women tod o more of the housework and childcare while men spend more of their time earning money

Evidence for Cultural Explanation

Equality will be achieved when norms of gender roles change via changes in men & women’s attitudes, values & expectations, role models & socialisation.

Gershauny: Found couples whose parents had a more equal relationship are more likely to share housework equally themselves. This suggests parental role models are important. He argues social values are gradually adapting to the fact that women are now working full-time, creating a new norm that men should do more domestic work.

Yee Kan: Found younger men do more domestic work. According to Future Foundation, most men claimed to do more ousework than their father & most women claimed to do less than their mother. This suggest a generational shift is occuring.

Evidence for Material Explanation

Sullivan: Shows that working full time rather than part time makes the biggest diff in terms of how much dom work each partner does

Kan: Found that every £10k/yr more a women earns = 2h less housework/weekly

Arber & Ginn: Found that MC women were able to buy in commercially produced products & services (labour saving devices, ready meals, domestic help) rater than having to spend time carrying out labour-intensive domestic tasks themselves

Money Management (Pahl & Vogyr’s Two types of control over family income)

Allowance System: Men give their wives an allowance out fo which they have to budget to meet family need, withthe man retaining any surplus income for himself.

Pooling: Were both partners have access to income & joint responsibility for expenditure; e.g. a joint bank account (Most common)

Meaning of Money

Pahl: Pooling money doesn’t mean equality.

Gotta know who who controls the pooled money, whether each partner contributes equally.

Vogler: Cohabiting couples were less likely to pool their money - desire to maintain independence. Evidence suggests that cohabiting couples are more likely than married couples to share domestic tasks equally.

Personal Life Perspective of Money

Focuses on the meanings couples give to who controls the money

From ts view, meanings money may have in relationships cant be taken for granted. e.g. We may assume one partner controlling money is a sign of inequality in the relationship, for some couples it may not mean this.

E.g. There’s evidence that same-sex couples often give a different meaning to the control of money in a relationship

Smart: Gay men and lesbians attached no importance to who controlled the money and were perfectly happy to leave ts to their partners. They didn’t see it as equality or inequality in the relationship.

Weeks et al: Typical pattern was pooling money for household spending, together with seperate accounts for personal spending. This money management system thus reflects a value of “co-independence” - where theres sharing, but where each partner retains control over some money & maintains independence.

Why does Domestic Violence not only have psychological causes?

Too widespread: Can’t be the work of a few disturbed individuals.

Women’s Aid Federation: DomVio accounts for between 1/6 & ¼ of all recorded violent crime

Crime Survery for England & Wales: 2M people reported having been victims of DomAbuse during the previous year (2012)

Does not occur randomly: Follows social patterns & these have social causes. Mainly violence by men against women.

Kathryn Colemen: Women were more likely than men to have experienced “intimate violence” across all 4 types of abuse - Partner, Fam abuse, SA & Stalking. ——- 2 Women/Weekly are killed by a partner or former partner

Abuse

Most victims of abuse are women.

Crime Survery for England & Wales: Estimates 7.3% of women (1.6m) had experienced DomAbuse in the previous year (2019), compared with 3.6& of men (750k). (Doesn’t tell abt frequency, severity or effects of abuse they suffer)

Ansara & Hindin: Found women suffered more severe violence & control, with more serious psychological effects. Also, women were much more likely than men to be fearful of their partners

Dar: Points out that it can also be difficult to count seperate DomVio incidents, since abuse may be continuous (e.g. Living under constant threat) or may occur so often the victim cant reliably count the instances.

Dobash & Dobash: Research in Scotland, based on police & court records & interviews w/ women in women refuges. They cite examples of wives being slapped, beaten, raped or killed by their husbands.

Dobash & Dobash: Found that violent incidents could be set off by what a husband saw as a challenge to his authority, such as his wife asking why he’s late to home. They argue marriage legitmates violence against women by conferring power & authority on husbands & dependency on wives.

Official Statistics of Domestic Violence & Abuse

Understates true extent;

Victims may be unwilling to report to the police

Yearnshire: Found on avg a women suffers 35 assaults before making a report. DomVio is the violent crime least likely to be reported.

Dar: Victims of DomVio are less likely than victims of other forms of violence to report the offence because they believe that its not a matter for the police or that its too trivial, or from fear of reprisals.

Police & Prosecutors may be reluctant to record, investigate or prosecute those cases that are reported to them.

Cheal: This is because police & other state agencies aren’t prepared to become involved in the family. They make three assumptions. 1) Family is a priv sphere so access to it by state agencies should be limited. 2) Family is a good thing so agencies tend to neglect the “darker side” of family life.

Radical Feminist Explanation (Domestic Violence)

Interpret findings like Dobash & Dobash as evidence of patriarchy. E.g. Millet & Firestone argue that all societes have been founded on patriarchy. They see the key division in society as that between men & women. Men are the enemy: they’re the oppressors & exploiters of women.

See the family & marriage as key institutions in patriarchal society & source of women’s oppressions. Within fam, men dominate women through DomVio or the threat of it.

For them, Widespread DomVio is an inevitable feature of patriarchal society & serves to preserve power all men have over woman. This view helps explain reluctance of the police and courts to deal effectively w/ cases of DomVio.

Evaluation/Crticisms

Elliot: Rejects the idea all men benefit from violence against women. Not all men are aggressive & most are oppressed to DomVio. Rad Fem ignore this.

Fail to explain FemVio, including child abuse by women & violence against male partners & within lesbian relationships.

Use concept of patriarchal society but wrongly assume all women are equally at risk of patriarchal violence. They explain why its women and not men who’re victims but fail to explain which women are likely to be victims.

Groups that are at higher risk of Domestic Violence

Office for National Statistics: Suggest women from some social groups face a greater risk of DomVio.

• Young women

• Those in lowest social class & living in most deprived areas.

• Those on low income or in financial difficulties

• Those living in shared and rented accomadation

• Those with long term illness or disability

Materialist Explanation (Domestic Violence)

Focuses on economic & material factors such as inequalities in income & housing to explain why some groups are more at risk than others

Wilkinson & Pickett: See DomVio such as result of stress on fam members caused by social inequality

Inequality means some families have fewer resources than others. Those on low incomes or living in overcrowded accomodation are likely to experience higher levels of stress = Reduces chances of keeping stable, caring relationships & increases risk of conflict & violence. E.g.

• Worries abt money, jobs & housing may spill over into dom conflict as tempers become frayed

• Lack of money & time restricts people’s social circle & reduces social support for those under stress.

Findings of Wilkinson & Pickett show that not all people are equally in danger of suffering DomVio: Those with less power, status, wealth or income are often at greatest risk.

Evaluation

Shows social inequality leads to stress & triggers conflict & Violence in families. Those in lower social classes face greater hardship = More stress, ts helps explain class differences in stats on DomVio.

Criticism: They don’t explain why women rather than men are the main victims.

What does Childhood being socially constructed mean?

Something created & defined by society.

Sociologists argue that what people mean by childhood, & the position children occupy in societym is not fixed but differs between different times, places & cultures.

Modern Western Notion Childhood

Special time of life & Children are fundamentally different from adults.

Children are physically & psychologically immature & not yet competent to run their own lives. There’s a belief children’s lack of skills, knowledge and exp means they need a protected period of nurturing & socialisation before they’re ready for adult society & its responsibilities.

Pilcher: Most important feature of modern idea of CH is separateness. CH is seen as a clear and distinct life stage and children in our society occupy a separate status from adults

^ > > Emphasised via what children are allowed, required or forbidden to do. Their difference from adults via clothing, products & services, toys, food, books, entertainments.

CH is a “golden age” of happiness & innocence. But, this means that children are seen as vulnerable & in need of protection from the dangers of the adult world & so they must be kept “quarantined” * separated from it.

Children today in West are defined as vulnerable & unable to fend for themselves.

Cross Cultural Differences in Childhood

Benedict: Children in simpler, non-industrial societies are generally treated diff from modern western counterparts in 3 ways:

• Take responsibility at an early age: Punch: Study in rural areas; Once children are about 5, they’re expected to take work responsibilities in the home and community. Tasks are taken w/o hesitation.

• Less value placed on children showing obedience to adult authority. Firth: Among Tikopia of Western Pacific, doing as you’re told by a grown up is regarded as concession to be granted by the child, not a right to be expected by the adult.

• Children’s sexual behaviour may be viewed differently: Malinowski: In Trobriand Islanders of the SW Pacific, adults took an attitude of “tolerance & amused interest” towards child’s sexual exploitations.

Benedict argues that in non-industrial cultures, there’s less dividing between behaviour expected of children and that expected of adults. Such evidences illustrates that CH isn’t fixed and not universally in the same form in all human societies but a socially constructed & so differs from culture to culture.

Globalisation of Western Childhood

International humanitarian & Welfare agencies have exported & imposed on the rest of the world, western norms of what CH should be - a separate life stage, based in nuclear fam & school, where children are innocent, dependent and vulnerable, and have no economic role.

Campaigns against child labour, or concerns about “street children” in developing countries, reflect western views about how CH “ought” to be - but - such activity by children may be the norm for their culture & important prep for adult life,

Criticism: Campaings have little impact on the position of children in developing countries.

Historical Difference in Childhood

Ariés: In the Middle Ages (10th-13th Century) the idea of Ch ain’t exist. Children weren’t seen as having a different “nature” or needs from adults - atleast, not once they’d passed the stage of physical dependency during infancy

In MidAges, CH as a separate age-stage was short. After being weaned, the child entered wider society on the same terms as an adult beginning work from an early age, often in household of another fam. Had the same duties & skills as adults. Law made no distinction between children and adults & children often suffered same punishments as those given to adults.

Shorter: High death rates encouraged indifference & neglect, especially to infants. E.g. it was not uncommon for parents to give a newborn baby the name of a recently dead sibling, to refer to the baby as “it”, or to forget how many children they had.

Modern Cult of Childhood

Reasons for Changes in the Position of Children

• Laws restricting child labour & excluding children from paid work;

• Compulsory Schooling;

• Child Protection & Welfare legislation;

• Laws & Policies that apply to Children;

• Children’s development became the subject of subject knowledge;

Information Hierarchy (The Future of Childhood)

Childhood in Postermodernity (The Future of Childhood)

March of Progress view (Has the position of children improved?)

The Conflict View (Has the position of children improved?)