Delphy and Leonard on Gender Roles

Delphy and Leonard:

• Feminist writers who focused on the familiar exploitation of women in the family

• Saw the exploitation of women in the family not as a benefit to capitalism, but rather as a benefit to men

• The family is patriarchal in nature and allows men to have a sense of authority at home

Domestic labour:

• The domestic labour that females provided at home would have been rewarded with wages outside of the home

• Deemed to be ‘non-productive’ when performed in the home- lost their worth and were not counted in the economy

• Home is not a refuge from work for women, but rather an economic microsystem of its own

• Work performed by women is ‘invisible’ and forms part of a set of expectations of being a wife and mother

• Domestic labour is gendered and when males perform tasks in the home, this is seen as ‘helping out’ rather than a duty

• Men are seen as having minimal responsibilities towards childcare- they ‘babysit’ their own children

Roles of males:

• A man’s time in the home was used for leisure based on assumptions that his work was completed outside of the home

• Women did not receive such leisure time, as assumptions were made about them enjoying housework and childcare

• Domains of the household were referred to as being part of a woman’s world- ‘her kitchen’ etc.

Evaluations:

• Links to work of others such as Oakley, Duncombe and Marsden with dual burden and triple shift

• Recent changes in the division of labour still see women doing more than their male counterparts- Gershunny refers to this as a form of ‘lagged adaption’

• Ignores the role of capitalism in shaping the economics of ‘gendered labour’ as being lower status

• The role of dual burden and triple shift is taken on in lone-parent families without the presence of males

• Dunne found there to be greater equality in domestic labour in lesbian households