Couples

Parsons 1955 = 2 conjugal (Marital) roles

The instrumental role - = male = breadwinner

The expressive role - = female = nurture/ carer

Argues the gender division of labour (Roles men and women play ) is functional for the family

Sees the division as biological basese, women naturaly suited to caring and male providing

The new right agree = biologicaly is the best way of organising family life

Sees conjugal roles as becoming more equal in modern society -

Bott 1957 identifies two types...

• segregated conjugal roles -

seperate , Division between male and female roles..

husbands and wives spend lessuire time seperatly

Young and wilmot 1957 found segregated conjugal roles in WC extended family

• Joing conjugal roles - 

Involves couples sharing domestic tasks and leisure 

Young and wilmot 1973

see a long term trend towards joint conjugal roles and the symetric family where roles are more simmilar and equal 

• Most women go out to work
• Men help with house work and child care
• Couples spend their lessuire time together

Reasons

The rise of the symetrical family is due to major social changes during the 20th century

EG higher living standards, labour saving devices , better housing , women working and smaller families 

Feminists reject the march of progress view

They see family as patriarchal not symmetrical or equal

Oakley 1974 found no evidence of symmetry in domestic labour 

She argues Young and Wilmott exagarate mens roles ; (Although they helped this could be only a small task once a week)

Boulton 1983 argues we need to look at who is responsible for tasks, not who performs them

The wife is seen as responsible for the childs welfare 

Less than 1/5 husbands took part in major childcare 

Most women today are in paied work

March of progress view = this is leading to a more equal division of domestic labour

Sullivan 2000 - Found women do less domestic work

Men do more traditional womens tasks

More couples have an equal division of labour 

Feminists do not believe women working has lead to more equality 

Women now carry a dual burden of paied work and house work.

Brittish social attitiudes 2013 show women do twice as much and couples still divide house hold tasks along traditional gender lines

Responsibility for children 

usualy the mother is responsible for tasks

Dex and ward 2007 found only 1% of fathers took on the main responsibility for caring for a sick child

Braun et al  found most fathers were backround fathers, They held a provider ideology where they are the bread winner not primary care giver

Responsibility for quality time 

women were responsibe for managing the families qualiy time

Duncombe and Marsden 

Found women were not only performing a dual burden but a tripple shift

• Emotion work
• Domestic labour
• Paied work 

Cultural or ideological explanation of patriarchal cultural norms shape gender roles

Women perform more domestic labour as this is what society expects and has socaised them to do so

Equaliy will be achieved when attiudes, values and expectations as well as socalisaition change

Evidence for this...

Gershuny - argues couples are adapting to women working full time establishing a new norm of men doing more domestic work

Kan - found younger men do more domestic work

Brittish social attitudes- found long term change in attitudes 

Women earn less than men

Economically rational for them to do more domestic labour

If women earn the same as men we should see couples doing more equal amounts of domestic work 

Evidence 

Arber and Ginn - found better paied women could buy in products and services eg childcare

Ramis - found that where the women is the full time breadwinner and the man is unemployed, they do equal amounts of domestic labour

Radical feminists argue hetrosexual relationships are ineviably partriarchal and unequal

They contrast this with same sex relationships

eg Dunne study of lesbian couples with children found more equal division of labour 

Dunne uses the gender scripts...

Hetrosexual- were socalised into gender scripts that set out diffrent masculine and feminine roles and gender identities

Lesbians-   did not link household tasks to gender scripts, so they were more open to negotiation nd thus more equal

Kempson found women in low income families denied their own needs to make ends meet

But even in households with adequate incomes, resources were often shared unequaly leaving women in poverty

Unequal share of resources often the result of who controls the familie income and decision making about who spends it

Usually the man 

Men usualy take the greater share of resources and have bigger says in decisions as they earn more

Pah and Volger - identified 2 types of contol over family income...

• The allowence system- Where men work and give their non working wives an allowence from which they budget to meet families needs
• Pooling - Where partners work and have joint responsibility for spending eg joint bank account

Has been a big increase in pooling with in recent years

However Volger found men still tened to make the major decisions, reflecting their greater earnings

Edgells study of decision making among prodessonal couples where both partners work full time also found inequalities

Very importnat decisions about finanaces or moving ect were taken by the husband 

Important decsions were taken on by husband and wife

Less important decisions such as food choice were taken on by wife 

2 explanations for inequality in decision making...

• Material - Men have more power in decision making as they earn more.Women are economicly dependent so have less say 
• cultural - Feminists argue gender role socalisation in patriarchal soceity instills the idea that men are the decission makers

Personal life perspective focuses on the meanings couples give to who controls the money, 

The meaning that money may have in relationships cannot be taken for granted

Nyman - argues that diffrent couples give money diffrent meanings. These meanings reflects the naure of the relaationship

Smart - Found same sex couples did not see the control of money as meaning eiher equality or inequality. This may be beacuse they do not enter the relationship with the same hetrosexual standards of cultural meanings that see money as power

Smart argues that it is essential to start from the personal meanings of the actors involved in the situation

Too wide pread to be just the behaviour of a few disturbed individuals 

The british crime survey (BCS) estimated that there are 6.6 mil assulted per year

However assults are not random, and they are usualy men against women 

Acording to BCS nearly one in 4 women is assulted by their partner at some time

However police statistics under estimate the extent due to under reporting and under recording

Under reporting - Domestic violence is the violent crime least likely to be reported to police.BCS estimated under a 3rd of assults are reported. Yearnshire found on average a women suffers 35 assults before reporting abuse

Under recording - Police are often unwilling to record , invesigate or prosecute domestic violence because they are reluctent to become involved in the private sphere of the family, They often take the view that individuals are free to leave if unhappy.

Most women cannot leave due to their children being financialy depends on their partners

Radical feminists see domestic violence as a result of patriarchy

In their view all societies are patriarchal and the key division between men and women

• Men benifit off womens unpaied domestic labour and sexual services. Domestic violece allows men to control women 
• Men dominate the state which is why the police and courts fail to take it seriously 

Dobash and Dobash provide supporting evidence 

They found violence was riggered when husbands felt their authority was being challenged

They conclude that marriages legitamise violence by giving power to men 

This focuses on economical factors such as inequalities in income and housing to explain why some groups are more at risk 

Women are not he only group at risk 

Other groups include ...

• Children and young people
• Poor and lower class
• Alcohol and drug users

Lack of resources - Wilkinson and Pickett argue that these patterns are a result of stess on the family caused by socialn inequalities.Families that lack resource suffer more stress and increased domestic violence 

Marxist feminists - Also see inequality producing domestic violence. Ansley argues that male workers exploited at work take out their frustration on their wives