Sociology - Families & Households: Gender Roles & Domestic Relatioships

What is a Gender Role?

It describes the roles that individuals are expected to fulfil based on their socialised gender identity. This will mean men and women will be socialised into different expectations as to behaviour's they need to overtly overtly demonstrate.

What is Domestic Labour?

It refers to the different roles and responsibilities required within the household, e.g. child rearing and housework.

What is the Division of Labour?

Stereotypically the cereal packet family would influence how the division of domestic labour is structured. Men expected to be the breadwinner and disciplinarian, whilst females are expected to be the housekeeper, raising children and emotional support for the man.

What are Power relationships?

Sociologists analyse has the power in the family in terms of; who control the family's income and resources are shared out and who has the biggest say, who makes the family decisions.

What is Contemporary society?

- It is a umbrella term used to refer the overall social trends of today. It is also a way to separate our own time period from those of the past.

What is the Dual Burden?

It is a term used to describe the workload of people who work to earn money, but who are also responsible for significant amounts of unpaid domestic labour. In heterosexual couples, where both partners have paid jobs, women often spend significantly more time than mmen on household chores. It's outcome is determined in large part by traditional gender roles that have been accepted by society over time.

What is the Triple shift?

Duncombe and Marsden developed the idea of a triple shift, where emotional work is added to domestic work and paid work.

What two categories did Elizabeth Bott (1957) that distinguishes domestic duties?

- Segregated Conjugal Roles: This is where couples have separate roles; a male breadwinner and a female homemaker/carer, as in Talcott Parsons' instrumental and expressive roles. Their leisure activities also tend to be separate.

- Joint Conjugal Roles: This is where the couple share tasks such as housework and spend their leisure time together.

What did Bott also comment the contrast of division of labour in different households?

She found that couples who were part of a close-knit social network e.g. in traditional working-class communities, tended to have segregated conjugal roles. Couples who had more loose-knit social networks e.g. those who had moved to new areas because of work, tended to gave joint conjugal roles.

Close-Knit, working class communities = Men are seen as the breadwinners, with women caring for men and women. A strong sense of working-class identity and class solidarity.

Loose-knit social networks = Individuals are expected to take care of only themselves and immediate families.

What view do Sociologist Peter Willmott & Michael Young (1973) take?

They take a 'march of progress' view of the history of the family. They see family life as gradually improving for all it's members, becoming more equal and democratic. They argue that there has been a long-term trend away from segregated to joint conjugal roles and the emergence of a more 'symmetrical family'.

What do Wilmott and Young mean by the 'symmetrical family'?

They mean one in which the roles of husbands and wives, although not identical, are more similar:

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

- Men now help with housework and childcare.

- Couples now spend their leisure time together instead of separately with workmates or female relatives.

What does Privatised mean in regard to the family?

- A self-sufficient family unt that outsources functions previously handled by the extended family, such as education, healthcare and childcare to social institutions.

What impact do Young & Wilmott see the symmetrical family being responsible for?

- Changes in women's position, including married women going out to work.

- Geographical mobility - more couples living away from the communities in which they grew up.

- New technology and labour-saving devices.

- Higher standards of living.

Many of these factor are inter-linked. For example, married women bringing a second wage into the home raises the family's standard of living. This means the couple can afford more labour-saving devices. This makes housework easier and encourage men to do more.

What did Oriel Sullivan's research showed?

Her analysis of nationally representative data collected in 1975, 1987 and 1997 found a trend towards women doing a smaller share of domestic work and men doing more. Her analysis also showed an increase in the number of couples with an equal division of labour and that men were participating more in traditional 'women's' tasks.

What did the British Social Attitudes Survey (2013) show the trends in reflecting attitudes to the traditional division of labour?

It found a fall in the number of people who think it is the man's job to earn money and the women's job to look after the home and family. In 1984, 45% of men and 41% of women agreed with this view, but by 2012 only 13% and 12% of women agreed.

How do Feminist sociologists see the 'march of progress' view?

They reject this view. They argue that little has changed, as men and women remain unequal within the family and women still do most of the housework. They see this inequality stemming from the fact that the family and society are male-dominant or patriarchal. Women occupy a subordinate and dependent role within the family and in wider society.

How Feminist Ann Oakley (1974) criticise Young & Wilmott's view?

She criticised that the view that the family is now symmetrical. She argues that their claims are exaggerated, as most of the husbands they interviewed 'helped' their wives at least once a week, but this could include simply taking the children for a walk on one occasion, which is hardly convincing evidence of symmetry.

How did Oakley come to the conclusion that Young & Wilmott's research was not valid.

She carried out informal interviews (lasting a couple of hours each) with 20 working class and 20 middle class housewives, Oakley found sone evidence of husbands in the home, but no evidence of a trend towards symmetry. Only 15% of husbands had a high level of participation in housework, and only 25% had a high level of participation in childcare. This suggests 85% of fathers did not have high level of participation in housework and 75% of fathers did not gave a high level of participation in childcare.

What did Oakley find about Male Gender roles in her survey?

- Husbands were more likely to share in childcare than in housework, but only its more pleasurable aspects.

- Most couple define the father's role as one of 'taking an interest'. A good father was one who would play with the children in the evenings and 'take them off her hands' on Sunday morning.

- However, this could mean that mothers lost rewards of childcare, such as playing with the children and were simply left with more time for housework.

How does the research of Mary Boulton (1983) support Oakley's findings?

- She found that fewer than 20% of husbands had a major role in childcare.

- A father might help with specific tasks, but it was almost always the mother who was responsible for the child's security and well-being.

- Furthermore, instead of losing to greater equality, the feminisation of the labour force has resulted in women having to cope with a dual burden i.e. they are expected to keep the house going whilst hold down a career.

What did Braun, Vincent & Ball (2011) find about the role of Father in families?

They found that in only three out of 70 studied was the father the main carer. Most were 'background fathers'; helping with childcare was more about their relationship with their partner than their responsibility towards their children. Most fathers still held a 'provider ideology' that their role was as breadwinners, while the mothers saw themselves as the primary carers/ This was underpinned by ideas about 'intensive mothering' in the media telling women how to be a good mother.

Explain the idea of the triple shift?

It is when women often carry out the burden of paid work, domestic labour and emotional work (like caregiving and managing family relationships), while men often focus primarily on paid work.

What do Sociologists Jean Duncombe and Dennis Marsden (1995) mean by 'emotion work'?

It is when women are often required to perform emotion work, where they are responsible for managing the emotions and feelings of family members, such as handling jealousies and squabbles between siblings, ensuring everyone is kept and so on. They argue that women have to perform a 'triple shift' of housework, paid work and emotion work.