A-level Sociology: Couples

What does domestic division of labour mean?

The roles couples play in regards of housework, childcare and paid work.

What did Parsons say on the domestic division of labour?

In the traditional nuclear family, the roles of husbands and wives are segregated and distinct and this is based on biological differences.

According to Parsons, what are the two roles for husbands and wives?

The instrumental role and the expressive role

What is the instrumental role?

The breadwinner role in the family; they are more dominant and authoritative and makes the decisions. Parsons believes this is the husband's role in the family.

What is the expressive role?

The caring, emotional and nurturing role in the family; they are responsible for the well-being of their family members and primary socialisation. Parsons sees this as the female's role.

What are criticisms of Parsons' view of the domestic division of labour? [3]

• Young and Willmott (1962): argue that men now help more with domestic tasks and more wives are entering the workplace.

• Feminists reject the idea that women are not suited for the work.

• This only benefits men as they end up being the ones with financial power in the relationship.

Who identified the two types of conjugal roles within a marriage?

Bott (1957)

What were the two types of conjugal roles Bott (1957) identified?

Segregated and Joint conjugal roles

What are conjugal roles?

The domestic roles of married or cohabiting couples.

What are the characteristics of segregated conjugal roles?

• There is a clear and often unequal divide of domestic chores.

• The couples spend little leisure time together

What are the characteristics of joint conjugal roles?

• There is no rigid division of household chores based on gender.

• The couple share their leisure time and have similar interests

Outline Young and Willmott study that took place in the 1950s and the outcome.

• Identified the pattern of segregated conjugal roles.

• Did a study of working-class extended families in east London in the 1950s.

• Found that men were the breadwinners, didn’t help with the housework and spent their leisure time with co-workers at pubs and men’s clubs.

• Women were full-time housewives; the limited leisure time they had was spent with female kin.

In their study in 1973, what did Young and Willmott discover about the family?

It's becoming more symmetrical

What view do Young and Willmott take?

March of progress

What is the symmetrical family?

Where the roles of husbands and wives are not identical, but are more similar.

What are some examples that act as evidence for the symmetrical family? [3]

• Women now go out to work.

• Men help with the housework and childcare.

• Couples spend their leisure time together.

Who did Young and Willmott say the symmetrical family is more common in?

Young couples who are geographically and socially isolated and more affluent.

What are reasons for the rise in the symmetrical family?

• Changes in women's position in society.

• Geographical mobility.

• New technology and labour-saving devices.

• Higher standards of living.

What did Oakley (1974) say in response to Young and Willmott?

• She criticises Young and Willmott’s idea that the family is becoming symmetrical.

• She says that Young and Willmott’s claims are exaggerated.

• The help that fathers did offer in the symmetrical families was minimal.

• She found that only 15% of husbands had a high level of participation in housework and only 25% when it came to child care.

• Men often did the fun parts of child-rearing and this meant that mothers lost the rewards of childcare and were left with more time for housework.

What did Wade and Hetherington (1993) talk about?

The sex-typing of domestic tasks.

What is sex-typing?

The stereotypical categorization of domestic chores according to conventional perceptions of what each gender is capable of.

What are statistics that act as evidence of sex-typing?

• Women were 30 times more likely to be the last person to have done the washing.

• Men were 4 times more likely to be the last person to wash the car.

What is some evidence that supports the march of progress view? [4]

• Gershuny (1994): women working full time is leading to more equal division of labour -

• Sullivan (2000): found that women are doing less housework and men are doing more.

• The British Social Attitudes Survey (2018): found that fewer people think that it is the man's job to be the breadwinner and the woman's to stay at home.

  • went from 43% in 1984 -> 8%

What is the feminist view on whether couples are becoming more equal?

• Little change has happened despite women taking on employed work.

• There is little evidence of ‘the new man’ and more women are taking on the dual burden.

• The British Social Attitudes Survey (2012): suggests that the domestic division of labour is still unequal.

  • men did on average 8 hours of housework a week whilst women did 13 hours couples still divide household tasks based on gender

What did Hochschild (2013) talk about?

Emotion work

What is emotion work?

Where women are responsible for managing the emotions and feelings of family members.

Who talks about emotion work?

Hochschild (2013)

Who talked about the triple shift?

Duncombe and Marsden (1995)

What did Duncombe and Marsden (1995) talk about?

The triple shift

What is the triple shift?

When women have to undertake housework, paid work and emotion work.

What did Southerton (2011) talk about?

Said that the responsibility of organising quality time as a family falls onto the mother and this is an even more difficult task for working women.

Who identified the two explanations for the division of labour?

Crompton and Lyonette (2008)

What did Crompton and Lyonette (2008) talk about?

• The two explanations for the domestic division of labour:

  • the cultural/ideological explanation.

  • the material/economic explanation.

What are the two explanations for the division of labour?

The cultural/ideological and the material/economic

What evidence is there for the cultural explanation? [4]

• Gershuny(1994): couples who’s parents had equal relationships are more likely to share housework equally.

• Man Yee Kan (2001): younger men do more domestic work.

• Future Foundation (2000): most men claim to do more housework than there father, and most women do less than their mother.

• Dunne (1999): lesbian couples had more symmetrical relationships as they weren’t pressured to conform to the stereotypical gender scripts.

What evidence is there for the material explanation? [3]

• Kan: for every £10,000 a year a woman earns, she does two hours less of housework per week.

• Sarah et al. (1995): middle-class women were more capable of buying labour-saving devices and other products and services that saved time on domestic chores.

• Ramos (2003): in couples where the woman is the breadwinner and the man is unemployed, he does as much domestic labour as she does.

What is the cultural explanation for the domestic division of labour?

Patriarchal norms and values are what shape the gender roles we have.

What is the material explanation for the domestic division of labour?

Men are more likely to earn more than their wives, so it's more rational for women to take on the expressive role.

What evidence is there to suggest that the division of childcare is still unequal? [3]

• Ferri and Smith (1996): in fewer than 4% of families father took care of their children.

• Dex and Ward (2007): only took responsibility for the fun parts of childcare; e.g. only 1% of fathers took care of their sick child.

• Braun, Vincent and Ball (2011): found that only in 3/70 families was the husband the primary care givers. Most were background fathers who held a provider ideology. This was further enforced by the media promoting ideas of intensive mothering which taught women how to be good mothers.

What is domestic abuse?

Any incident or 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.

What fraction of violent crimes does domestic abuse account for?

Between a sixth and a quarter

What evidence is there to show that women tend to be victims of domestic violence carried out by men?

• Coleman et al. (2007): women were more likely to experience intimate violence in all four types of abuse: partner abuse, family abuse, sexual assault and stalking.

• Coleman and Osborne (2010): two women a week are killed by a partner or former partner.

What did Dobash and Dobash (1979: 2007) research on domestic violence show?

• They did research in Scotland based on police records and interviews with women.

• They found that wives had been slapped, pushed, beaten, raped and killed by their husbands.

• Violence was triggered when husbands felt their authority was being challenged.

• Argue that marriage legitimates violence against women and makes women dependent on them.

What did the CSEW (2020) show about the domestic violence men and women experience?

Estimated that 7.3% of women have experienced domestic abuse compared to 3.6%.

What did Barret and Mcintosh's (1991) study on money management show?

• Men gain far more from women’s domestic work than they give back in financial support

• The financial support they do give is unpredictable and comes with strings attached.

• Men usually make the important decisions on what to spend money on

What did Kempson's (1994) research on resources show?

Family members do not share their resources equally and among low-income families, women's needs are often denied. E.g. getting less food or skipping meals

Who identified the two types of control over family income?

Pahl and Vogler (1993)

What did Pahl and Volger's (1993) study on money management show?

• There are two types of control over family income: the allowance system and pooling.

• Pooling was becoming more popular.

What are the two types of control over family income?

Allowance and pooling

What is the allowance system?

Where men give their wives an allowance in order to budget and meet the family's needs.

What is pooling?

Where both partners have access to a shared account.

According the Pahl and Vogler, which form of money management is becoming more common?

Pooling

What is one evaluation behind the fact that pooling is becoming more common?

Pahl and Vogler (2007): even when pooling is used, men tend to make the major financial decisions.

What did Edgell's (1980) study on decision making show?

• Very important decisions (e.g. moving house) were primarily taken by the husband.

• Important decisions regarding the child care and their children’s education was carried out primarily by the wife.

• Less important decisions (e.g. home decor) were also taken out by the wife.

What evidence is there to show that women's careers take a backseat to their husbands?

• Hardill (1997): studied 30 dual-career couples and found that most decisions were taken either by the man alone or jointly and that the man's career to priority.

• Finch (1983): women's lives tend to be structured around their husbands' careers.

What does the personal life perspective say when looking at money management?

You have to focus on the meanings couples give to who controls the money. E.g. some couples may not see who controls the money as a sign of power.

What did Smart's (2007) study on homosexual relationships show?

Gay and lesbian couples attached no importance to who controlled the money in their relationship and there was greater freedom to structure their relationship as they wanted as they didn't have the same gendered baggage behind the meanings of money and control.

Who said that the responsibility of organising quality time as a family falls onto the mother and this is an even more difficult task for working women?

Southerton

Who said that by cohabiting, couples are making the conscious decision to create a more equal relationship?

Benjin (1985)

What did Coleman and Osborne (2010) discover about domestic abuse?

Two women a week are killed by a partner or former partner.

What did Yearnshire (1997) find out about women's reluctance to report domestic abuse?

On average, women suffer up to 35 assaults before making a report.

What reason did Cheal (1991) give for the unreported cases of domestic abuse? [3]

The police are not willing to be involved in the family due to certain reasons:

• the family is part of the private sphere.

• the family is a good institution so people ignore the dark side.

• as we have free will, they just expect the woman to leave her partner in order to resolve everything

What are the two explanations of domestic violence?

The radical feminist explanation and the materialist explanation

What is the radical feminist explanation of domestic abuse?

Widespread domestic violence is an inevitable feature of patriarchal society and serves to preserve the power that all men have over all women.

What is a criticism of the radical feminist explanation of domestic abuse? [3]

• Elliot (1996) rejects the idea that all men benefit from domestic violence against women (e.g. not all men are violent and most are opposed to domestic violence).

• Radical feminists fail to explain female violence and child abuse.

• Ignore why some women are more at risk of domestic violence e.g. young women, economically deprived women, disabled women etc

What is the material explanation of domestic abuse?

Stress created by economic factors leads to people taking their anger out on their partner.

Who saw domestic violence as a result of economic stress?

Wilkinson and Pickett (2010)

What did Wilkinson and Pickett (2010) say about domestic violence?

It was a result of economic stress

What are some evaluations of the materialist explanation of domestic violence?

• Doesn’t explain why women are more likely to be victims.

• Marxist feminists see inequality as a cause of domestic violence.

• E.g. Ansley (1972): describes women as the “takers of shit” from their worker husbands