paper one- family

DIVISION OF LABOUR- parson’s theory

instrumental and expressive roles…

instrumental- men were biologically better for making money and be the breadwinner.

expressive roles- women were better by biology for this, such as caring and being the best for domestic labour.

DIVISION OF LABOUR- Willmott and Young

symmetry

in the early 70’s families were more home centred, women were still doing most the domestic work however husbands were starting to now help more.

DIVISION OF LABOUR- Ann Oakley

middle class families had greater equality

men have less interaction with housework

women now in employment and also doing the same level of domestic work (dual burden)

DIVISION OF LABOUR- bott

joint and segregated conjugal roles

men and women used to have different roles in the household, with men typically taking on the breadwinner role and women managing domestic tasks. Bott's research highlighted how these roles could either be joint, with shared responsibilities, or segregated, with distinct tasks assigned to each gender.

DIVISION OF LABOUR- Warde and Hetherington

sextyping

stereotypical jobs men and women do in the home

wives 30x more likely to be the last person to have done the washing

husbands 4x more likely to be the last person to wash the car

EQUAL- Gershuny

British households

increased amount of women taking up paid employment outside the home.

in 1997- that women are still taking up 60% of domestic work in the house even when both parties were working full time.

however there is a gradual shift.

EQUAL- Dunne

lesbian couples had more symmetrical relationships- didnt have gender scripts

NOT EQUAL- Duncombe and Marsden

many women in the study were holding the relationship together by doing more emotional work. women ‘deep act’ in the early stages of the relationships.

then the ‘shallow act’ to maintain the picture for their partners and outside work. domestic work, employment and emotional work

NOT EQUAL- Ferri and Smith

studied that only 4% of fathers in families took responsibility for childcare

NOT EQUAL- Hochschild

women are often required to do the domestic work and they feel they are required to do it. e.g, looking after family members and mentally caring for others, putting their feelings over their own needs.

NOT EQUAL- Southerton

another responsibility that seems to fall on women according to Southerton is the responsibility of coordinating, scheduling and managing quality time together. more difficult in modern society as work is more demanding and difficult. women’sn personal time is interrupted by childcare and multi tasking.

RESOURCES AND DECISION MAKING- Pahl and Vogler

two main types of control over the income

the allowance system- where men give women an allowance out of which they have a budget to meet the families needs and the man keeping the extra income for himself.

pooling- both parents have access to the income and joint responsibility for spending. increasing way of the money system. more equal way, often used when both partners are working full time.

however it can give him more financial power. men still make most the decisions

DEICSION MAKING- Edgell

important decisions such as changing something finically, changing job, moving house etc were the decisions the husband used to make or if they were joint the husband had the last say.

educational decisions or where to go on holiday were made by the wife. or less important decisions such as home décor.

argues: husband usually earns more economically and the wife is dependent on them- less decision making.

DECISON MAKING- personal life perspective- Smart

the money management system reflects a value of ‘co independence’ where there is sharing but also each partner regains control over money and maintains a sense of independence. this pattern is found between co-habiting couples.

Smart found that there is greater freedom for same sec couples to do what they want. due to less historical, gendered and heterosexual baggage of culture. same sex couples had there own independence.

DOMESTIC ABUSE- coleman and osborne

all types of abuse

takes up six quarters of violent crimes. domestic violence does not follow a pattern and does not occur randomly but follows social patterns.

2007- found that women are more likely to have experienced domestic violent than men- all 4 types (sexual, family, stalking and sexual assault)

DIVORCE- what major changes have happened?

• women and couples are having less children

• improvements to the law

• couples are alone but living together

• different family patterns and types

DIVORCE- 1961/71

the divorce reform act- you could file a divorce for the following reasons…

• adultery

• unreasonable behaviour

• lived apart for two years

• if parties don’t agree on the divorce its 5 years

DIVORCE- 2022

the divorce, dissolution and separation act

• don’t have to wait 5 years

• 2 years and 6 months wait

• didn’t have to have proof, ‘inevitable split’

DIVORCE- timeline

1949- legal aid for women

1969- divorce law

1996- family act law encouraged couples to rethink their choice- even take medication

2004- civil partnerships and divorce settlements

2007- 50/50 split of assets

overall improvement to divorce

MEANING OF DIVORCE RATES- the new right

see high divorce rate as undesirable as it undermined marriage and the nuclear family. (see this as vital to stability to society)

MEANING OF DIVORCE RATES- feminists

see high divorce rates as desirable because it shows that women are breaking free from oppression/ patriarchal nuclear family

MEANING OF DIVORCE RATES- personal life perspective

accepts that divorce can cause problems such as finical and family. lack of daily contact between children and non-residential parents.

MEANING OF DIVORCE RATES- functionalists

high divorce rate is not a threat to marriage as a social institution. its a result of peoples higher expectations of marriage today. however the rate of re-marriage shows people continuing commitments.

MEANING OF DIVORCE RATES- interactionalists

aim to understand what divorce means to the individual

MORGAN- argues we cant generalise the meaning to the individual

MEANING OF DIVORCE RATES- postmodernists

individuals have freedom to choose to end the relationships when it no longer meets their needs

big cause to greater family diversity

DEMOGRAPHICS BIRTH RATE- reasons for the decline

changes in women’s position- women going into paid employment, having their own salaries and increase cost of having children.

contraception- such as the pill- women preventing pregnancies. easier control on having children.

easier to get a divorce- SARAH HARPER mentions how women’s mindsets have now changed aren’t as involved in having children.

the benefit system- women can now live alone and not have to rely on a relationship.

BIRTH RATE- reasons for the decline- part two

decline in infant mortality rate- healthcare is better and more accessible to everyone. medicine is also better so when children are unwell they are more easily cured. also living environments are better.

children are economic liability- banned child labour and introduced compulsory schooling and raising the leaving age.

child centredness- both family and society- childhood now socially constructed.

EFFECTS OF FERTILITY

on the family- smaller families mean that women are more likely to be free to go out to work. flexibility.

the dependency ratio- relationship between the size of the working or productive part of the population and the size of the non-working or dependent part of the population.

AN AGING POPULATION

older people consume a larger population of services such as health and social care. one person pensioner households have increased and now account to 12.5% of households (1 in 8) .

the dependency ratio in aging population

non-working young and non-working old are an economically dependent group on the work

DEATH RATE- nutrition

THOMAS MCKEOWN- argues that improved nutrition accounted or up to half the reduction in death rates. better nutrition increased resistance to infection and increased survival chances.

DEATH RATE- medicine

after the 1950’s improved medical knowledge techniques and organisation did help to reduce rates. and the introduction of anti-biotics and blood transfusions or even maternal care.

DEATH RATE- smoking and diet

a decline in death rate may have been from the number of people stopping smoking. in 2012, one quarter of UK adults were obese.

HARPER- believes the UK may be moving to a American lifestyle.

DEATH RATE- public health measures

in the 20th century more effective central and global government with necessary power to pass and enforce laws led to a range of improvements in public health and quality of the environment.

DEATH RATE- other social changes

decline of dangerous manual jobs such as mining, smaller families and greater public knowledge of the caused of illness, reduction of men that smoke, higher incomes and healthier living.

PATTERNS- cohabitation

unmarried couple in sexual relationships. and they live together.

number of marriages have been declining the number of couples cohabiting continues to increase.

2.9 million cohabiting heterosexual couples in Britain.

PATTERNS- marriages

fewer people are marrying- at their lowest since 1920’s

more re-marriages

people remarrying

couples less likely to marry with the church

PATTERNS- same sex relationships

the history- STONEWELL- the campaign for lesbian, gay and bisexual rights estimates that about 5 to 7% of the adult proportion today have the same sex relationships.

one person households- and stats

fewer people today are living in couples: big rise in the number of people living alone. in 2013, or three in ten (7.7 million) contained only one person nearly three times the figure for 1961.

reconstituted/ step families

more people are remarried or have had children with existing partners.

2.3 million separated families in Britain and 3.6 million children in those families.

60% of those families had a child maintenance arrangement.

extended family- beanpole

multi-generational family that is long and thin meaning people are having less children and smaller families. there are view aunts and uncles meaning families are smaller. as a result life expectancy is higher and fewer children being born.

integrational vs intragenerational

1. bringing different generations together for a common purpose. and participating in strengths and different generations have to offer. challenging ageism.

2. social movement from one generation to the next. a child attains lower social status than their parents.

Marxist perspective- summery

see societies institution such as education system, media, religion, state and family- maintaining class inequality and capitalism.

Marxism- inheritance of property

they say the key factor determining the shape of all social institutions including family is the control of societies production force. e.g. tools, machinery, raw materials, land and labour. should abolish this for a classless society.

Marxism- private property.