ROLES AND POWER RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN COUPLES
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?- Created by: Lucy Sparling
- Created on: 07-01-13 17:39
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- ROLES AND POWER RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN COUPLES
- Domestic Division of labour
- gender roles that men and women play in relation to housework, childcare and paid work
- Functionalism- Parsons (1955)
- Segregated conjugal roles in traditional nuclear family
- Instrumental- men go to work
- Expressive- women act as homemakers and carers
- Reasons
- based on biological differences
- women are naturally suited
- :( out dated as men do more child labour
- :( Division of labour is not natural
- Segregated conjugal roles in traditional nuclear family
- March of progress- Young and Willmott (1973) family is more equal
- Move towards a more symmetrical family
- Women- have a part/full time job
- Men- help with housework and child care
- Symmetrical family is privatised and more child centred
- Reasons
- New technology
- Greater affluence and higher standard of living
- Geographical mobility
- Early Feminists
- Oakley (1974) family is not smmetrical
- 15% of men help with housework
- 25% of men help with childcare
- Many men 'help' out but seldom take responsibility for domestic tasks
- women's work is mainly low paid and an extension of their housewife role
- 15% of men help with housework
- Oakley (1974) family is not smmetrical
- Recent Feminists
- Family remains patriarchal
- Dual Burden- women increasingly doing paid work and unpaid housework
- Triple Shift- paid work, domestic work and emotional work
- Reasons
- Gender Scripts- social expectations of the gender roles that men and women play in relation to domestic tasks.
- Family remains patriarchal
- Recent Empirical Evidence
- Sullivan (2000)
- trend towards symmetry, increase in equal division of labour
- Reasons- increase in number of women working
- trend towards symmetry, increase in equal division of labour
- Silver (1987) and Schor (1993)
- Housework is becoming less of a burden
- Reasons- commercialisation of housework products
- Evaluation-
- Reasons- commercialisation of housework products
- ignores variations in division of labour in terms of:
- Social Class: better paid and educated do less housework
- :( often methodically flawed 1) women underestimate and men overestimatethe time spent on domestic labour 2) time studies tell us little about level of satisfaction gained
- Sexuality- lesbian couples- more symmetry in relationship
- :( often methodically flawed 1) women underestimate and men overestimatethe time spent on domestic labour 2) time studies tell us little about level of satisfaction gained
- Sexuality- lesbian couples- more symmetry in relationship
- Social Class: better paid and educated do less housework
- Housework is becoming less of a burden
- Sullivan (2000)
- Resources and decision making
- Resources
- Barrett and McInosh (1991)
- financial support men provide is worth less than domestic wrk women do
- Financial support can be unpredictable and strings attached
- Other feminists
- women deny themselves food to feed their other family members
- Women who are separate from men and rely on benefits are often financially better off
- Barrett and McInosh (1991)
- Decision making
- pooling system- people in couples helps selves to money
- allowence system- men control how much is given to the woman
- Edgell (1980)
- very important decision made by men- moving house
- importnat decision are made by both men and women- schooling
- less important decision are made by women- decore
- Reasons for the inequality
- men generally earn more- women beceom economically dependent
- Patriarchy- believed that the husband is the head of the house
- Enforced through threat or actual domestic violence
- Resources
- Domestic Violence
- physical, sexual and psychological abuse between those in a family type relationship
- Satistical evidence- Mirrles-Black(1999)
- 6.6 million domestic violence assults each year (half of which are physical)
- Most victims are women 1 in 4 women are assulted by partners
- most victims are in working class, live in rented accomodation
- violence is common against children adn the elderly
- Problems with statistics
- underestimation (size): a)victims unwiling to report b) police and CPs reluctant to involve themselves in family life
- underestimation(male victims) few report cases as they feel embarrassed or foolish
- Reasons for domestic violence
- Dobash and Dobash (1979)
- Patriarchy
- product of male domination, power and control
- Evaluation: overgeneralises- only explains violence carried out by men - growing number of male victims
- often triggered by the perception that women are challenging men
- Evaluation: overgeneralises- only explains violence carried out by men - growing number of male victims
- often triggered by the perception that women are challenging men
- product of male domination, power and control
- Patriarchy
- Wilkinson 1996- domestic violence is the product of stress
- :( doesnt adequately explain why women are at greater risk than men
- Ansley(1993) out let of mens fustration from the work place
- :( economically deterministic
- Dobash and Dobash (1979)
- Domestic Division of labour
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