Families and Households - Topic 1 Couples (AQA)

Nuclear Family - Mother, father and children living in the same household. Sometimes referred as 'Cereal Packet' Family. Preferred by The New Right (Charles Murray) and Fuctionalists.

Extended - All kin, beyond the nuclear family

Beanpole - Multi-generational family with fewer children being born, but living longer. Vertical (e.g. grandparents) not horizontal (e.g. uncles)

Patriarchal Family - Headed by the male (Feminists ideas of nuclear family).

Matrilocal Family - Headed by female.Preferred by Feminists (Radical)

Symmetrical Family - Coined by Young + Wilmott. When tasks are equally shared, women work and the couple spends time together instead of with workmates and female relatives.

Reconstituted Family - When one or both parents have been married before, have children from previous marriages and re-marry.

Lone-Parent Family - Children being rased by one parent

Parsons:

• Instrumenatl Role - Financial support (Husband)
• Expressive Role - Children's socialisation, families emotional needs (Wife - Link to Ansley who sees women as 'takers of ****')

Banks:

• Segregated Conjugal Roles
  • Breadwinner = Husband
  • Homemaker = Wife
• Joint Conjugal Roles

Young + Wilmott:

• Study in 60s London that found segregated conjugal roles in WC extended familes
• Found symmetrical families more common in younger couples
• 'March of Progress View' - Claim that 75% of men help in the household

Ann Oakley:

• Feminist
• Criticises Young + Wilmott
• Beleive on 15% of men acc help
• Housewife role is more prominent in married women
• In the19th Century, women were excluded from work leading them to become financially dependent on men
• Despite progress, housewife role is still woman's primary role

Gershuny:

• Wives who work full time do less domestic work, slowly becoming more conjugal
  • Unemployed - 83%
  • Part-Time - 82%
  • Full-Time - 73%

Commercialisation of Housework:

• Goods and services that women used to do are now mass produces by supermarkets, for example, making it easier for women to do less housework.

Ferri + Smith:

• Dual Burden = Paid Work + Unpaid Work

Duncombe + Masden

• Tripple Burden = Paid Work + Unpaid Work + Emotional Work

Pahl + Vogler

• Pooling - Both partners have access to income
  • Increased from 10% to 50%
• Allowance System - Husband gives the wife an allowance to budget for the family's needs
  • Decreased from 36% to 12%

Edgell

• Very Important Decisions = Husband
• Important Decisions = Both
• Less Important Decisons = Wife

This is due to men earning more and the patriarchal ideology that men are the decison makers

Dune

• Study of cohabitating lesbian couples with dependent children
• Found that they were more likely to have joint conjugal roles (Banks), have symmetry (Young + Wilmott) in their relationships and to not care about who makes financial decisions

(Supports Radical Feminists ideas views of male opression and political lesbianism)

British Crime Survey - 6th of all crimes

Coleman et al.

• Women are more likely to have expereinced 'intimate violence'

Mirrlees

• 99% of incidents against women are done by men
• 1/4 of women have been assaulted by a partner

David Lheal

• Police and State Agencies beleive that family sphere is private and so access from the state should be limited + Family is a key instituition in society + Women can leave if they wish

Radical Feminists

• Dobash + Dobash 
  • Find domestic violence as evidence of patriarchy in the family
  • Due to challenges of men's authority
  • Marriage is a key institution for domestic violence
• Millet + Firestone
  • Men are the enemy who oppress women, and marriage is the main source
  • Domestic violence is inevitable

Criticisms:

• Elliot - not all men are aggressive
• Fail to explain female violence
• Mirrless-Black - 1/7 of men are assaulted