Comprehensive Sociology Notes: Families and Households Study Guide

Domestic Division of Labour: Relationships and Equality in Couples

• Key Questions on Domestic Equality

  • Do men and women share housework and childcare equally?

• Essential Definitions and Theoretical Concepts

  • Household: Defined as a person living alone, or a group of people living together who share meals, bills, and housework. Members may or may not be related to one another.
  • Instrumental Role: The role of the breadwinner or provider in the family. Functionalists identify this as primarily a man's role.
  • Expressive Role: The caring, nurturing, and 'homemaker' role. Functionalists argue that women are biologically suited for this role.
  • Nuclear Family: A two-generation family unit comprised of a man, a woman, and their dependent children (biological or adopted).
  • Domestic Division of Labour: The specific way work performed within the home (childcare, cleaning, cooking) is shared between partners.
  • Segregated Conjugal Roles: A configuration where the couple has distinct roles: a male breadwinner (instrumental) and a female homemaker (expressive). Leisure activities are typically pursued separately.
  • Joint Conjugal Roles: A configuration where the couple shares domestic tasks such as housework and childcare and chooses to spend their leisure time together.
  • Symmetrical Family: A family structure where the roles of husbands and wives are increasingly similar. Characteristics include women participating in paid work (often part-time), men assisting with domestic labour, and shared leisure time.
  • March of Progress: A perspective championed by Young and Willmott ($1973$) suggesting that family life is gradually improving, becoming more democratic, equal, and moving toward the 'symmetrical family' model.
  • Geographical Mobility: The phenomenon of couples living away from their hometowns or families of origin. Young and Willmott argue this social change facilitated the rise of the symmetrical nuclear family.
  • Patriarchal Society: A social system based on male domination and the exercise of power over women.
  • Commercialisation of Housework: The process where domestic goods and services are mass-produced (e.g., supermarkets, fast-food outlets) and domestic labor is reduced by technology (e.g., freezers, microwave ovens, vacuum cleaners).
  • Dual Burden: A situation, typically applied to women, where an individual is responsible for both paid employment and the majority of domestic labour.
  • Emotion Work: The labor involved in meeting the emotional requirements of others (e.g., responding to the physical and emotional distress of a sick child). Functionalists posit women are better suited for this.
  • Triple Burden / Triple Shift: A concept from Duncombe and Marsden ($1995$) arguing women are expected to manage three types of labor: paid work, housework, and emotion work.
  • Cultural or Ideological Explanation of Inequality: The view that the division of labour is determined by patriarchal norms. Women do more domestic work because society expects it through gender role socialisation.
  • Material or Economic Explanation of Inequality: The view that because women generally earn less than men, it makes rational economic sense for women to focus on childcare and housework while men maximize earnings.
  • Gender Scripts: Deeply ingrained expectations or norms (Dunne, $1999$) that dictate how men and women in heterosexual couples should behave, reinforcing the segregated division of labour.

• Main Perspectives and Sociological Contributions

  • Parsons ($1955$) - Functionalist: Advocates for the nuclear family with a clear division: men in the instrumental role and women in the expressive role, arguing these are biologically rooted. Evaluation: Feminists reject this 'natural' division; Young and Willmott ($1962$) point toward a March of Progress.
  • Young and Willmott ($1973$) - March of Progress: Identify a trend toward joint conjugal roles due to geographical mobility, new technology, and higher standards of living. Evaluation: Gershuny ($1994$) supports the idea that full-time work for women leads to more equality, but feminists argue that husbands' 'help' is often limited to 'fun' activities like taking children for a walk.
  • Oakley ($1974$) - Feminist: Argues society is patriarchal and women remain subordinate. The $2012$ British Social Attitudes Survey reinforces this, showing women spend nearly twice as long on housework.

• Key Statistical Facts (British Social Attitudes Survey $2013$)

  • Average housework per week: Women = $13$ hours; Men = $8$ hours.
  • Time spent on family care per week: Women = $23$ hours; Men = $10$ hours.
  • Traditional task split: Women handle laundry, shopping, cleaning, and cooking; Men handle repairs and car maintenance.

• Links to Research Methods

  • Young and Willmott ($1973$) utilized structured interviews in East London. They surveyed $933$ participants using formal, standardized questions with limited answers. Interviews lasted between $10$ and $30$ minutes.
  • Social Desirability Bias: A risk in this research where participants may lie to appear better than they are.

• Practice Exam Questions

  • Outline and explain two reasons why women continue to do the majority of housework and childcare in the family ($10$ marks).
  • Applying material from Item B and your knowledge, evaluate the view that the division of labour in couples is now equal ($20$ marks).

Resources, Decision Making, and Domestic Violence

• Key Questions on Power and Resources

  • Do partners have an equal say in family decisions?
  • Is household income shared equally?
  • Why does domestic violence occur?

• Concepts in Income Management

  • Pooling: Where both partners have access to income and shared responsibility (e.g., joint bank accounts).
  • Allowance System: Where men give wives a set budget for family needs, keeping the surplus for themselves.

• Sociological Perspectives on Resources

  • Laurie and Gershuny ($2000$) - Economic: Found that in $1995$, $70\%$ of couples had an equal say. High-earning professional women are more likely to pool money and share decisions.
  • Smart ($2007$) - Personal Life Perspective: Focuses on the unique meanings couples give to money. Money control does not always equate to inequality for all individuals.
  • Weeks et al ($2001$) - Cultural Explanation: Feminists argue patriarchal gender role socialisation deeply ingrains men as the primary decision-makers, regardless of earnings. Pahl and Vogler ($1993$) found even with pooling, men made major financial decisions.

• Key Facts on Earnings and Power

  • Men earn $15\%$ more than women on average.
  • $42\%$ of women work part-time compared to $12\%$ of men.
  • Men are more likely to decide on significant items like house moves; women decide on food shopping.

• Domestic Violence

  • Definition: Physical, psychological, sexual, or financial violence within an intimate or family relationship. Often referred to as the 'Darker Side of the Family'.
  • Radical Feminist Perspective (Firestone, $1970$): Views domestic violence as an inevitable product of patriarchy where men use violence (or the threat of it) to dominate women. Evaluation: Elliot ($1996$) notes not all men are violent. $18\%$ of men have experienced domestic violence.
  • Materialist Perspective (Wilkinson and Pickett, $2010$): Domestic violence is caused by stress resulting from social inequality (low income, overcrowding). Evaluation: Marxist feminists (Ansley, $1972$) agree inequality causes stress, but this model doesn't explain why women are disproportionately the victims.
  • Domestic Violence Statistics:
    • $1$ in $4$ women and $1$ in $6$ men experience domestic violence.
    • $89\%$ of assaults are committed by men against female partners.
    • Women suffer an average of $35$ assaults before reporting.
    • Only $\frac{1}{4}$ of incidents are reported to police.
    • $\frac{3}{4}$ of rapes occur in the home.
    • In $1991$, rape within marriage was legally recognized as a crime.

• Links to Research Methods: Official Statistics

  • Official statistics understate the problem because victims fear not being believed or the 'trivialisation' of the act. Police may view family as a 'private sphere' and assume women are 'free agents' who can leave easily.

The Social Construction and Position of Childhood

• Key Questions

  • Is childhood a natural or social construction?
  • Is the position of children improving?

• Definitions and Theories

  • Social Construction: The idea that childhood is created by social processes and varies by time, place, and culture.
  • 'Cult of Childhood' (Aries, $1960$): The modern world's obsession with childhood as a separate, protected stage.
  • March of Progress (Aries and Shorter, $1975$): Argues child welfare is improving (IMR decline, better education).
  • Child Liberationists: Argue children are victims of Age Patriarchy (adult domination, specifically by the male head of household, per Gittins, $1998$).
  • Information Hierarchy (Postman, $1994$): In the $19^{th}$ century, literacy created a barrier. TV has broken this hierarchy, leading to the 'Disappearance of Childhood' as children access 'adult' knowledge.
  • Toxic Childhood (Palmer, $2010$): Rapid technology and junk food culture damage physical and emotional development.
  • New Sociology of Childhood: Sees children as 'active agents' who create their own childhood experiences.

• Historical and Cross-Cultural Variations

  • Historical: Aries ($1960$) argues that in the Middle Ages, children were 'mini-adults'. This changed with church schools and laws, though Pollock ($1983$) argues childhood existed then but was just different.
  • Cross-Cultural: Benedict ($1934$) notes children in developing countries take early responsibility and have different sexual/obedience norms.

• Key Child-Related Statistics

  • Compulsory schooling began in $1880$. Children Act passed in $1880$.
  • By age $18$, a child costs an average of $£260,000$.
  • Nearly $31\%$ of UK children live in poverty ($2024$).
  • UNICEF ranked UK $21$ out of $36$ for child well-being ($2025$).

Perspectives on the Family

• Functionalism

  • Murdock ($1949$): Four essential functions: 1) Stable satisfaction of sex drive, 2) Reproduction, 3) Socialisation, 4) Economic needs.
  • Parsons ($1955$): The 'Functional Fit' theory—the nuclear family grew out of the industrial need for a mobile workforce. The family has two Irreducible Functions: Primary Socialisation and Stabilisation of Adult Personalities (the 'warm bath' theory).

• Marxism

  • Ideological State Apparatus (ISA): The family maintains capitalism by reproducing class inequality.
  • Engels ($1891$): The monogamous nuclear family emerged to ensure inheritance of private property.
  • Socialisation into Hierarchy: Families teach children that inequality is inevitable.

• Feminist Perspectives

  • Liberal (Somerville, $2000$): March of progress toward equality through legal changes (Equal Pay Act $1970$, Equality Act $2010$).
  • Marxist (Ansley, $1972$): Women are 'takers of shit' who absorb husbands' anger from capitalist exploitation. They are a 'reserve army of labor'.
  • Radical (Greer, $2000$): Advocates for Separatism or Matrilocal households to escape male oppression.
  • Difference: All women's experiences are unique (impacted by ethnicity, class, sexuality).

• Personal Life Perspective (Smart, $2014$)

  • Shifts focus to meanings and broadens the definition of family to include: Fictive Kin (friends), Chosen Families (LGBTQ+ networks), and Donor-conceived children.

Demography: Births, Deaths, and Migration

• Birth Rate Trends

  • Long-term decline since $1900$. Birth rate in $2025$ is predicted at $11.08$.
  • Total Fertility Rate (TFR): $1.76$ in $2025$, compared to $2.95$ in the $1960s$.
  • Reasons for change: Position of women (education, abortion), declining IMR (mass immunisation in $1950s$), and children as economic liabilities.

• Death Rate Trends

  • DR was $19$ per $1000$ in $1900$; $8.9$ in $2012$; rising to $9.5$ in $2024$ post-Covid.
  • Life Expectancy: Males born in $1900$ lived to $50$ ($57$ for females). Males born in $2013$ expect to live to $90.7$ ($94$ for females).

• Ageing Population

  • Average age in $1971$ was $34.1$; in $2013$ it was $40.3$.
  • Consequences: One-person pensioner households (1 in 8), increased dependency ratio, and Structured Dependency (elderly excluded from work).

• Migration Trends

  • Super-diversity: Migrants from a wider range of countries.
  • Citizens vs. Denizens: Citizens have full rights; Denizens are foreign nationals (e.g., billionaires) welcomed by the state.
  • Helots: Disposable labor, reserve army of labor.
  • Assimilationism vs. Multiculturalism: Assimilationism (be 'like us') vs. Multiculturalism (retaining identity). Multiculturalism often involves 'shallow diversity' (samosas, saris, and steel bands) rather than addressing 'deep diversity'.

Changing Family Patterns and Diversity

• Divorce

  • $40\%$ of all marriages end in divorce; $65\%$ of applications are from women.
  • Causes: Law changes ($1923, 1949, 1971$), secularisation, and the search for the 'Pure Relationship' (Giddens).

• Marriage and Parenting

  • Fewer marriages; average age rising to $32$ for men, $30$ for women ($2012$).
  • $1$ in $4$ children live in Lone-parent families ($90\%$ female-headed).
  • Bean Pole Family: Families that are 'tall and thin' (multiple generations but fewer children).

• Family Diversity Perspectives

  • New Right: Views diversity as a 'broken society' and 'perverse incentives'.
  • Chester ($1985$): The Neo-conventional family is a dual-earner nuclear family that most still aspire to.
  • Rapaports ($1982$): Five types of diversity: Organizational, Cultural, Social Class, Life-stage, and Generational.
  • Stacey ($1998$): 'Divorce-extended families' - members connected by divorce rather than marriage.
  • Beck ($1992$): The 'Risk Society' and 'Negotiated Family' which look alive but are essentially 'Zombie Families'.

Families and Social Policy

• Theories of Policy

  • Functionalism: Policies help families function (e.g., NHS).
  • Donzelot ($1977$): Policies are state surveillance or 'policing the family', especially targeting poor families.
  • New Right: Policies create 'Perverse Incentives' (e.g., council housing for teen moms) leading to a 'Dependency Culture'.
  • Drew ($1995$) - Gender Regimes: Familistic (assume traditional roles, e.g., Greece) vs. Individualistic (treat partners equally, e.g., Sweden).

• UK Political History and Policy

  • Conservatives ($1979-1997$): Banned promotion of homosexuality; set up the Child Support Agency (CSA).
  • New Labour ($1997-2010$): Working Families Tax Credit; Civil Partnerships; recognized women as wage earners.
  • Coalition ($2010-2015$): Introduced gay marriage ($2014$); austerity cuts to welfare.