Sociology Paper 1 - Couples - The domestic division of labour

The domestic division of labour among couples. Are couples becoming more equal?

How did Parsons describe his identifications of ‘instrumental’ and ‘expressive’ roles?

Parsons made a functionalist model of the family - for a traditional nuclear family. In which, the husband has an instrumental role, focusing on providing for the family financially, he is the breadwinner of the family. Meanwhile, the wife has an expressive role, geared towards emotional work and nurturing of children, emphasizing caregiving and support for the family's emotional needs.

What does Parsons argue about the division of labour? Who holds the same view?

Parsons argues that the division of labor is based on natural, biological differences between men and women. New Right thinkers hold the same view.

Who criticises Parsons functionalist view of instrumental and expressive roles?

Willmott and Young (march of progress thinkers) argue that men are now taking a greater share of tasks and wives are also wage earners more often. This can be seen in feminist Sharpe’s study of changing aspirations.

Feminists like Oakley criticize Parsons’ perspective and reject his view that the differences in the division of labour are natural, radical feminists in particular believe that the roles perform an ideological function to legitimate patriarchy and the subordination of women.

What type of conjugal roles does Bott identify within marriage?

• Segregated conjugal roles = Parsons’ roles, leisure activities tend to be separate, with the breadwinning men spending their time in pubs with their friends for example - as identified by Willmott and Young in their study of working-class extended families in East London in the 1950s.

• Joint conjugal roles = where the couple shares the domestic tasks, similar to Willmott and Young’s ‘symmetrical family’. Leisure time is more likely spent together.

What do Willmott and Young find - supporting Bott’s study?

Willmott and Young found that couples are increasingly adopting joint conjugal roles, indicating a shift towards more shared domestic responsibilities. This supports the idea of a 'symmetrical family' where tasks and leisure activities are more equally distributed between partners.

What view do Willmott and Young hold?

They hold a march of progress view, believing that relationships in families are improving over time, leading to more equality in domestic roles. They believe there is a trend towards the ‘symmetrical family’, where family life is gradually improving for all its members, becoming more equal and democratic. They argue that there’s been a long term shift away from segregated conjugal roles.

How can the family been seen as gradually becoming more symmetrical?

• women now go out to work, although this may be part-time rather than full-time

• men now help with childcare and housework

• couples now spend their leisure time together instead of separately.

In their study of families in London, what did Willmott and Young find in relation to the symmetrical family?

They studied w/c extended families in East London, in the 1950s. They found that the symmetrical family was more common among younger couples, those who are geographically and socially isolated, and in the more wealthy.

What do Willmott and Young see the rise of the symmetrical family as a result of?

They see the rise in the symmetrical family as a result of major social changes that have taken place, such as:

• changes in women’s position, including married women going to work - dual-earner families

• geographical mobility - more couples moving away

• new technology and labour saving devices

• higher standards of living

  They argue that many of these factors are interlinked. For example, married women bringing a second wage into homes raises living standards (material dep.) This means the couple can afford more labour saving devices, which makes housework easier while encouraging men to do more.

How do feminists reject Willmott and Young’s perspective?

Radical feminists in particular argue that there has been little change, men and women still do unequal work. (Delphy and Leonard = the family is a patriarchal institution in which women do most of the work, while men get most of the reward).

Oakley criticises Young and Willmott’s view that the family is now symmetrical, she argues that their claims are exaggerated.

What is Oakley’s study?

Study of housewives, which found some evidence of husbands helping in the home, but no evidence of symmetry. Only 15% of husbands had a high level of participation in housework, and 25% in childcare.

How does Boulton support Oakley’s study?

She found that fewer than 20% of husbands had a major role in childcare. She also argues that Willmott and Young exaggerate men’s contribution by looking at the tasks involved in childcare, rather than the responsibilities.

How is Warde and Hetherington’s findings similar to that of Oakley and Boulton?

They found that sex-typing of domestic tasks remained strong. For example, wives were 30x more likely to be the last person to have done the washing, while husbands were more likely to be the last person to have washed the car. (This links to Browne and Ross’ ‘gender domains’, supported by Colley).

In general Warde and Hetherington found that men would only do the ‘female tasks’ if she wasn’t there to do them. However, they did find a slight change in the attitude among younger men.

What is the impact of paid work, on couples becoming more equal?

Most of the women in Oakley’s study were full-time housewives, but in today’s society, many wives now go out to work. This trend raises two questions: are couples becoming more equal (?) OR does it mean that women now have to carry a ‘dual burden’ of paid work and domestic work?

The march of progress view is that couples are becoming more equal. For example, Gershuny argues that women now going out to work is one of the causes of the shift towards more equal domestic tasks - joint conjugal roles.

How does Sullivan’s study support the march of progress view that couples are becoming more equal?

Found a trend towards women doing a smaller share of domestic tasks and men doing more. Her analysis also found an increase in the number of couples with an equal division of labour.

What is the feminist perspective on the question if couples are becoming more equal? - due to more women in employment. What data supports this(?) - what is a criticism of this data?

• Women going into paid work hasn’t led to greater equality in the division of domestic labour.

• women now carry a dual burden of paid work and domestic labour.

  This is supported by data from the British Social Attitudes (2012) - found that men did an average of 8 hours of housework per week, while women do 13. Women spent 13 hours longer on caring for the family.

  The survey also found that couples continue to divide household tasks along traditional genderlines (sex-typing).

  HOWEVER, the data does not use qualitative data. These surveys also tend to focus on easy quantifiable aspects such as who performs what, not how long they spend doing so.

How and who by, is Boulton’s finding supported?

Braun, Vincent and Ball found that in only 3/70 families was the father the main carer. Most were ‘background fathers’ - helping with childcare was more about their relationship with their partner, rather than their responsibility towards their children. Most fathers held an ‘provider ideology’ that their role was as breadwinners, while the mothers saw themselves as the primary carers.

What do Duncombe and Marsden argue?

They take a radical feminist perspective, arguing that women now have to perform a ‘triple shift’, of paid work, domestic labour, and ‘emotion work’ (another aspect of taking care of the family, discovered by Hochschild).

What does Southerton argue?

Scheduling and coordinating the family’s quality time also usually falls down to mothers. This becomes more difficult in today’s late-modern society due to recent social changes, such as the emergence of the 24/7 economy and flexible working patterns. These changes have led to people’s time being more fragmented. Southerton argues that mothers are pushed for time - he argues that although studies show couples having more equal amounts of free time, they have different experiences of it. For example, mothers’ are likely to be punctuated by childcare. They are also more likely to multi-task.

What is a conclusion to the question of couples becoming more equal?

Evidence suggests that there may have been some movement towards an equal division of labour, but arguably not a significant amount.

There is conflicting evidence on the question - some findings, such as Gershuny’s, suggest a move towards greater equality, whereas others such as the BSA survey in 2012, and Southerton’s, indicate continuing inequality.

How do Crompton and Lyonette explain the gender division of labour?

They put forward 2 explanations for the inequality:

1. The cultural / ideological explanation = the division is determined by patriarchal norms and values that shape gender roles in our culture. Women perform domestic tasks because it’s what society expects them to do, and has socialised them to do. [Feminist view]

2. The material / economic explanation = the fact that 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. [Functionalist view]

What evidence is their for Crompton and Lyonette’s ideological explanation of the gender division of labour?

From this perspective, equality will only be achieved when norms about gender roles change.

Gershuny - found that couples whose parents had a more equal relationship are more likely to share housework equally themselves (socialised) - this suggests parental roles are important. He argues that social values are gradually adapting to more women working full-time, creating a ‘new-norm’ of men doing more housework.

Dunne - found that lesbian couples had more symmetrical relationships, because of the absence of traditional heterosexual ‘gender-scripts’.

What evidence is their for Crompton and Lyonette’s economic explanation of the gender division of labour? How is it concluded?

From this perspective, if women join the labour force and earn as much as their partners, we should expect to see men and women doing more equal amounts of domestic work.

Kan - found that for every £10,000 a year more a women earns, she does 2 hours less of housework per week.

Ramos - found that where the woman is the full-time breadwinner and the man is unemployed, he does as much domestic labour as she does.

HOWEVER, women still earn less than men. In 7/8 households, men earn more. This is partly because women, especially those with young children, are more likely to work part-time. (can link to the ‘glass ceiling’ preventing women from higher positions - which would earn more pay). Crompton therefore concludes that there’s no immediate prospect of a more equal division of labour if it depends on the economic explanation.

Are couples becoming more equal? - CONCLUSION

There is some evidence that a women being in paid work leads to more equality in the division of labour, especially if she’s in full-time work (eg, Ramos, Gershuny)

However, many feminists argue that, in reality, the extent of this is limited (Oakley, Boulton, Vincent - Braun and Ball): women still continue to shoulder a dual or triple burden (Hochschild, Duncombe and Marsden). And even if men are doing more in the home, tasks are still gendered (Warde and Hetherington). Furthermore, it’s women who are expected to take responsibility for housework and childcare (Oakley, Boulton, the BSA (2012)).

Feminists, radical feminists especially, argue that the root of the problem is patriarchy. Patriarchal norms and values shape societies expectations about domestic roles that men and women ought to perform (ideological explanation). Patriarchy also ensures that women earn less at work and so have less bargaining power in the home (‘glass ceiling’). Until patriarchy is successfully challenged in the home and in the workplace, the domestic division of labour is likely to remain unequal (economic explanation).