Sociology
- Created by: DOMINICCC76
- Created on: 29-03-16 20:45
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- Couples
- Domestic Division of Labour
- Functionalism
- Parsons (1955) identified two conjugal roles
- Instrumental Role - Male, Breadwinner
- Expressive Role - Female, Nurturer/Carer/Homemaker
- Argues gender dividion is functional for whole family, its members and wider society
- See's it to be biologically based
- New Right agree with Parsons that it is biologically based
- March of Progress View
- Bott (1975) identifies two types of conjugal roles
- Segregated - Sharp division of labor between male breadwinner and female homemaker (also spent leisure time differently)
- Joint - Involves couples sharing domestic tasks and lesuire
- Young & Wilmott (1973) Symmetrical Family
- Most women now go out to work
- Men help with housework and childcare
- Couples spen lesuire time together
- Men have become more home-centred and the family more privatised
- Rise of Symmetrical Family is due to major social changes in the 20th century
- Bott (1975) identifies two types of conjugal roles
- Feminism
- Reject the March of Progress View
- See the family as patriarchal (male dominated)
- Not symmetrical or equal
- See the family as patriarchal (male dominated)
- Ann Oakley (1974)
- Found no evidence of symmetry in domestic labor
- Argues that Young and Wilmott exaggerate mens role
- Although husbands helps, this could just include ironing their shirts once a week
- Boulton (1983)
- Argues that we need to look at who is responsible for tasks
- Wife is seen as reponsible for childrens welfare even when men help
- Less than one in five husbands took a major part in childcare
- Reject the March of Progress View
- Functionalism
- Are couples becoming more equal?
- March of Progress View
- Most women today are in paid work
- Argues that this is leading to a more equal division in labor
- Sullivan (2000)
- Found women now do less domestic work
- Men do more traditional 'womens tasks'
- More couples have an equal division of labor
- Most women today are in paid work
- Feminist View
- Do not believe that women working has led to greater equality
- Women now carry a dual burden of paid work and domestic work
- Responsibility for Children
- Although fathers helps with specific tasks, usually mothers take well being responsibility
- Dex & Ward (2007)
- Found that only 1% of fathers to the main responsibility for childrens well being
- Braun et al (2011)
- Found that most fathers were 'background fathers
- They held a provider ideology
- Role was breadwinner not primary carer
- Dex & Ward (2007)
- Although fathers helps with specific tasks, usually mothers take well being responsibility
- Responsibility for Quality Time
- Women generally take responsibility
- Working mothers find themselves juggling competing demands on their time
- Triple Shift
- Duncombe & Marsden (1995)
- Found that women not only had to carry a dual burden but also a triple shift
- Emotion work Domestic work & Labour work
- Found that women not only had to carry a dual burden but also a triple shift
- Duncombe & Marsden (1995)
- Do not believe that women working has led to greater equality
- Explaining the Gender Division of Labour
- Cultural or Ideological explanation
- Evidence
- Equality will be achieved when attitudes, values and expectations, role models and socialization change
- Gershuny (1994)
- Couples are adapting to women working full time, establishing a new norm of men doing more domestic work
- Kan (2001)
- Found younger men do more domestic work
- British Social Attitudes (2013)
- Found a long term change in attitudes
- Evidence
- Material or Economic Explanation
- Evidence
- If women earn as much as their partners we should see couples doing more equal amounts of work
- Arber & Ginn (1995)
- Better paid women ould byt in products and services
- E.g. childcare, rather than carrying out domestic tasks themselves
- Better paid women ould byt in products and services
- Ramos (2003)
- Found that where women is full time breadwinner and male is unemployed, they do equal amounts of domestic labour
- Evidence
- Cultural or Ideological explanation
- Sane Sex Couples and Gender Scripts
- Radical feminists argue that heterosexual relationships are hugely patriarchal and unequal
- Dunne (1999) Gender Scripts
- Heterosexuals
- Socialised into gender scripts that set out different masculine and feminine roles and gender identities
- Lesbians
- Did not link household tasks to gender scripts, so they were more open to negotiation and thus more equal
- Heterosexuals
- March of Progress View
- Resources and Decision Making
- Kempson (1994)
- found that women in low income families denied their own needs to make ends meet
- Even in households with adequate incomes, resources are often shred unequally, leaving women in poverty
- Decision making & paid work
- Pahl & Volger (1993) identified two types of control over family income
- Allowance system where men work and give their non working wives an allowance from which they budget to meet the families needs
- Pooling where parents work and have joint responsibility for spending (e.g. a joint bank account)
- Pahl & Volger (1993) identified two types of control over family income
- Professional couples and decision making
- Edgell (1980)
- Study of decision making among professional couples where both work full time
- Very important decisions made by husband and less important decision made by the wife
- Study of decision making among professional couples where both work full time
- Two main explanations for inequalitites in decision making
- Material - Men have more power in decision making because they earn more (women are economically dependant so they have less say)
- Cultural - Feminists argue that gender role socialisation in patriarchal society instils the idea that men are the decision makers
- Material - Men have more power in decision making because they earn more (women are economically dependant so they have less say)
- Edgell (1980)
- Personal life perspective on money
- Nyman (2003)
- Argues that different couples give money different meanings
- These meanings reflect the nature of the relationship
- Argues that different couples give money different meanings
- Smart (2007)
- Found that some same sex couples did not see the control of money as meaning either equality or inequality
- This may be because they do not enter relationships with the same 'heterosexual baggage of cultural meaings' that see money as a source of power
- Nyman (2003)
- Kempson (1994)
- Domestic Violence
- Statistics
- British crime survey estimated that there are 6.6 million assaults per year (mainly men against women)
- Nearly one in four women are assaulted by their partner at some time
- Under-reporting
- Domestic violence is the violent crime least likely to be reported to the police
- BCS estimated that under a third of assaults are reported
- Yearnshire (1997)
- On average a woman suffers 35 assaults before reporting abuse
- Under-recording
- Police are often unwilling to record, investigate or prosecute domestic violence
- As they are reluctant to become involved in the 'private sphere' of the family
- Often take the view that individuals are free to leave if they are unhappy
- In fact, many women cannot leave because they and their children are financially dependant on their partners
- Police are often unwilling to record, investigate or prosecute domestic violence
- British crime survey estimated that there are 6.6 million assaults per year (mainly men against women)
- Radical feminist explanation
- Men oppress women, mainly through the family where they benefit from the womans unpaid domestic labour and sexual services
- Domestic violence (or threat) enables men to control women so is inevitably a patriarchal society
- Men also dominate the state and this explains why the police and courts fail to take domestic violence seriously
- Materialist explanation
- Focuses on economic factors such as inequalities in income an housing to explain why some groups are more at risk
- Children and young people, the poor and lower classes, and alcohol/illegal drug users are also at risk
- Lack of resources (Wilkinson & Pickett 2010)
- Argue that these patterns are a result of stress on the family caused by social inequality
- Families that lack resources suffer more stress and this increases the risk of violence
- Marxist feminists
- See inequality producing domestic violence
- Ansley (1972)
- Argues that male workers exploited at work take out their frustration on their wives
- Statistics
- Domestic Division of Labour
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