Unit 1

• Wives + husbands roles = segregated
• Husband - instrumental = breadwinner
• Wife - expressive = socialises children & meet's family's emotional needs = home maker
• Based on biological differences - women = nurture + men = provider

Critics:

• Wilmott & Young - men take greater shape in taks + wives = wage earners
• Feminists - divison of labour is not natural + only benefits men

• Wives + husbands roles = segregated
• Husband - instrumental = breadwinner
• Wife - expressive = socialises children & meet's family's emotional needs = home maker
• Based on biological differences - women = nurture + men = provider

Critics:

• Wilmott & Young - men take greater shape in taks + wives = wage earners
• Feminists - divison of labour is not natural + only benefits men

Bott (1957) :

• 
  Segregated conjugal roles = male is breadwinenr + woman is home maker
• Joint conjugal roles = couple do tasks together and spend leisure time together

Wilmott & Young:

• 
  Study on tradtional working class in London (1950's)
• Males= breadwinner (working in the docs)
• Women = full time housewife

Wilmott & Young (1973) - take the march of progress/functionalist view

• family = improving for its members - equal & democratic
• long term trend away from conjugal roles & symmetrical family
• symmetrical family = ways roles of husbands and wives - similar
• women now go to work- part/full time
• men = help with childcare and houswork
• couples = spend leisure time together

Symmetrical family = more common in younger couples - geographically/socially isolated.

Wilmott & Young = result of major social changes such as:

• changes in position of women
• geographical mobility - couples living away from communities
• new technology - labour savinf devices
• higher standards of living

All of the above = inter-linked eg, women working 

• Reject march of progess view
• men & women = unequal
• women do most housework
• family and society are male dominated
• women = surbodinate/dependent role

Oakley:

• Critises Wilmott & Young = exaggerated
• Research - husbands help in home but no symmetry
• Husbands more likely to share childcare
• Father = only good if he played with children

Boulton - fewer than 20% of husbands had a major role

• Wilmott & Young exaggerate
• Father might help with specific tasks but mother = responsible for children

Warde & Hetherington:

• sex typing of domestic roles= strong
• men only carry female tasks when partners are not around
• But found evidence that younger men = different attitude

• Industrialisation in 19th century = separation of paid work from home
• women = excluded from workplace 
• men = the breadwinners+ women = housewives

Enforced:

• surbodination
• women = dependent on men
• housewive role = socially constructed and not natural as Parsons claims

Even thoguh the 20th century saw an increase in the number of married women working:

• housewive = primary role
• women = low paid jobs
• low paid jobs = extension of housewive role eg, nursing or childcare

Man-Yee-Kan :

• income from employement, age and education effected how much work women did
• better paid, younger and better educated = less work
• Every £10,000 decreases housework by 2 hours

Gershuny: the trend towards equality

• 
  wives who worked full time = less housework
• wives who didnt work = 83%
• wives who worked full time = 73%
• longer the wife worked = more work husband would do around the house
• couple's with parents with equal relationships = replicate this themselves

Explanations:

• change in values 
• parental role models
• social values = adapt to women working full time
• Even though men do housework = responsibility for different tasks

Sullivan:

• trend towards equality = men doing more domestic work
• men participating in women's tasks

The views of Sullivan and Gershuny = optimistic compared to Wilmott & Young's march of progress view that conjugal roles are becoming more symmetrical.

Crompton:

• women's earnings increase = men do more in home
• earnings remain unequal
• earnings remain equal = labour remains equal

Silver & Schor

Houseowork has become commercialised:

• goods and services = reduce amount of domestic labour
• women working = afford to buy goods and services
• burden of housework has decreased ^
• death of the housewive role^

Critics:

• poorer women = expensive goods + services is not an option
• commercialisation = doesn't prove that couples are sharing roles

Feminists:

• women working = little evidence of the man helping out
• women have dual burden of work and domestic unpaid work
• family remains patriachal 
• men benefit from women's earnings & labour

Ferri & Smith:

• employment of women = little impact opn domestic work
• father takes responsibility for childcare in 4% of the 1,589 families they studied
• women at work and husband unemployed = husbands still don't do more

Morris:

• 
  men who had suffered a loss of their masculine role as a result of becoming unemployed 
• they then saw domestic work as women's work = avoided the tasks

However....

Ramos:

• familes where males are unemloyment + partner works full time = match domestic work of his partner

Arber & Ginn:

• 
  middle class women can afford full day child care
• working class women cannot afford full day child care
• working class women = trapped in a vicious circle of childcare responsibilities, low paid and part time employment,

Dunne:

• 
  gender scripts do not operate in the same way as in heterosexual relationships
• there is symmetry in their relationships
• they describe relationships as equal + share housework + share childcare
• equal importance to both partner's careers
• view childcare positively
• interact in different ways = unlike heterosexual couples who are under pressure to: conform to masculine or feminine gender scripts by perfoming different domestic tasks.
• in a household, tasks are not linked to gender = equal relationships

Supports radical feminist viw:

• men and women = patriachal
• women can only achieve equality = same sex relationships

Weeks:

• same sex couples = greater equality because of division of labour
• not based on patriachal tradition
• open to negotiation + agreement

However....

• Dunne = one partner did much work than the other
• paid work = exerts an important influence on division of labour

• DECISION MAKING:
• men earn more 
• men = likely to make major decisions - even when incomes are pooled

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE:

• form of patriachal power
• does not occur randomly but follows social patterns 
• most victims are women
• 1 in 4 women will experience domestic violence
• 99% of incidents are committed by men

Dobash & Dobash:

• 
  violent incidents are set off by what husbands see as challenging their authority
• marriage legitimises violence against women

• children are immature and not pyschologically developed to be independant yet
• children lack skills, knowledge & experience

Pilcher:

• childhood is separate
• childhood = clear & distinct life stage
• through laws, dress and products/services.
• childhood = golden age of happiness and innocence
• children = quarantined and separated from adulthood dangers
• childrens lives = sphere of the family and education - where adults protect them
• children = lead lives of leisure, play and excluded from paid work.

Wagg:

• childhood is a separate life stage = not in all societies
• different cultures construct childhood differently
• children = vulnerable in western cultures
• other cultures= no difference in children & adults

Benedict:

• children in  non - industrial societites = treated differently 
• non-industrial cultues = less of a divide between behaviour of children + adults
• child is not a fixed thing + not found as the same universally
• socially constructed = differs in cultures

Holmes:

• study of Soman village
• too young was never a reason for why a child should not perform a certain task
• dangerous tasks = parents will allow children to undetake

Firth:

• Study on the TIKOPIA of the western pacific
• doing as you are told by a grown up = their choice

Malinowski:

• study in Trobiand islanders of the south pacific
• adults = attitude of tolerance and amused interest when children sexually explored and carried out sexual activities.

• childhood differs from time to time

Aries:

• middle ages = childhood didnt exist
• children = same nature/needs as adults
• childhood as a separate age stage was short
• after weaning = work began for children
• children = mini adults because of : same rights, duties & skills as adults
• law = children & adults face the same punishments.

Shorter:

• high death rates = encourages neglect towards infants
• wasn't uncommon to give a baby a dead sibling's name

Aries: from the 13th century onwards

• schools = specialised in education of the young
• children's and adults clothing became different
• 18th century = child rearing books were available - growth of child centered families
• we are now a world that is obsessed with childhood
• 20th century - century of the childhood

Pollock:

• critices Aries.
• society had a different notion to what childhood was

- However, Aries work is valid because it shows childhood = socially constructed

- demontrates how childhood has changed over time

• Laws = exclude children from work/child labour + children are financially dependant on parents
• compulsory education 
• raising of the school leaving age = extended dependency
• child protection & welfare legislation: 1889 prevention of cruelty to children act = social services
• Children's rights = parents have responsiblites.

Changes in society:

• declining in family size/infant mortality rate = parents have greater financial/emotional investment into their children's lives
• Children's health and development - medical knowledge 
• Laws and policies: minimum ages eg, for sex & smoking = adults are diff to children

Birth rate: used to measure births  defined by number of live birhts per 1K of the population per year.

• There has been a decline in birth rate since 1900

The total fertility Rate:

• total fertility rate is the number of children a woman will have during her fertile years
• risen since 2001, but rose in 2006

Reflect that:

• women remain childless
• women postpone having children
• older women may be less fertile

Economic, cultural, legal, politcal and technological advances.

1) changes in position of women:

• women's right to vote
• increased educational opportunities
• more women in paid employment
• changes in attitudes to family life
• easier to divorce
• abortion & contraception

As a result - women see other things as more important than being a mother/housewive

2) decline in infant mortality rate:

• imrpoved houses & better sanitation
• better nutrition for mothers and babies
• betetr knowledge of hygiene, child health & welfare
• fall in number of married women working
• improved services for mothers and children
• medical improvements, eg immunisations

3) children have beome an economic liability:

• Laws =banning of child labour, raising of school leaving age & complusory education
• changing norms = what children have a right to expect from their parents

4) child centeredness:

• childhood = socially constructed
• parents now have fewer children abd pay more attention to their children

Future trends in birth rates:

• slight increase = because of immigration & babies born outside of the UK.

The family:

• smaller families = women are free to go out to work = creates a dual earner
• better off couples = larger families and afford childcare

The dependency Ratio:

• the relationship between the size of the working part of the population and the size of the non working/dependent part of the population
• earnings, savings and taxes of the population provide for the dependent
• children = large part of the dependent population
• fall in number of children = reduced burden of dependency
• fewer babies being born = fewer adults + small workling population

Public services & Policies:

• lower birth rate = bad for public services
• fewer schools, maternity/child health needed
• coss of maternity/partenity leave

Death rate has fallen since 1900. 

Death rate = number of deaths pere thousand of the population per year

Reasons for the decline in death rate:

• Improved nutrition
• improved medical advances
• public health and enviroment improvements
• other social changes - decline in dangerous manual jobs.

Life expectancy:

• refers to how long an average person born in a given year can expect to live
• death rate fallen = increased life expectancy

Class, gender and regioncal differences:

• Those living in the north havea lower life expectancy than those living in the south
• working class men in unskilled jobs are more die first

• There are fewer young people + more older people
• result of increasing life expectancy
• decline of infant mortality rate
• declining in fertility

Effects:

• Public services - older people consumer more of the public services eg, health
• One person pensioner households - more single person households (most are females)
• Dependecny ratio - pensioners depend on the young and needed to be provided for.

Immigration - movement into area or society

Emigration - moving out of country

Net migration - difference between numbers immigrating and emigrating.

Immigration:

• 
  1950's - black migrants arrived
• 1960's/1970's south asians arrived

Consequences = produced an ethnic diverse society

Emigration:

• more people go out than come in
• economic push factors - unemployment at home, higher wages and better opportunities abroad

Recent and future migration patterns

• highest immigration in 2004 - european union = allows to work/live here
• immigrants and migrants = youing and male- 1/4 coming to study or work
• Emigrants from UK are older -= likely to retire abroad in spain

Dependency ratio:

• 
  migrants are working age = reduces dependency ratio
• immigrant women = higher birth rates - contributes to higher dependency rate = reduces the average working age of population and produces more workers.
• the longer a migrant group spends in a country, it adapts to their fertility rate

Internal Migration:

• 
  during industrial revolution - jobs were based in the north, south wales and west scotland
• produced a turn from rural to urban
• later on, industries began to decline and shifted to the south
• London & south east have exerted = finance and service industries are there
• surburbanisation =large residential areas around cities

Changing patterns of Divorce:

• 1960's = increase in divorce - 1969 divorce reform act
• numbers have fallen since 2001
• 7/10 petitions come from women
• couples who marry young, cohabit or have a child before marriage - at risk of divorce

Explanations of the increase in divorce:

 1) changes in the law 

• 1969 divorce reform act = widening grounds of divorce, cheaper divorce, equalising grounds.
• Desertion = partner leaves the other but are still married
• separation = court separates couple
• empty shell = married but still living together

2)declining stigma and changing atiitudes

• more socially acceptable
• divorce is a normal part of life

3)seccularisation

• decline of influence of religion
• fewer people go to church
• churches have softened views on divorce

4)rising expectations of marriage

• Functionalist - Fletecher = higher divorce rate - higher marriage standards
• ideology of romantic love

5)changes in position of women

• women are in paid work
• equal pay of women
• girls have greater success in education
• availability of welfare benefits

New Right:

• divorce undermines tradtional nuclear family
• divorce creates more dependent female lone parent households
• leave boys with no male figure

Feminists:

• high divorce = desirable
• women are breaking from opression of patriachal nuclear family

Postmodernists:

• gives individuals freedom to choose
• cause of greater family diversity

Functionalists:

• high divorce rate = because of high expectattions of marriage
• high re-marriage shows peoples commitments to the idea of marriage

Interactionasists:

• Morgan - we cannot generalise the meaning of divorce

Marriage:

• fewer people are marrying
• more re-marriages than marriages
• people marry later
• couples= less likely to marry in church

Reasons for patterns in marriage:

• changing attitudes to marriage - less pressure to marry and individuals can choose relationship type they want
• secularisation = decline
• declining in attached stigma
• alternatives to marriage: cohabit, single, having children outside of mariage
• changes in position of women - put education and career first
• fear of divorce

Cohabitation 

Reasons for the increase in Cohabitation:

• decline in stigma to sex outside marriage
• young are more likely to accept it
• increased career opportunities for women
• secularisation

Relationship between cohabiting and marriage:

• Chester - cohabitation is a prelude to marriage
• Coast - 75% of all couples expect to marry in the future
• most cohabiting couples marry if they have children
• couples see cohabitation as an alternative to marriage
• Macklin - cohabitation does not mean the same for all couples and is diverse

• SAME SEX RELATIONSHIPS
• increased social acceptence 
• social policy starting to treat gay couples equally - eg gay marriages 2014.

One person households:

• rise in people living alone
• half = people who are pensioners
• men under 65 = likely to live alone

Reasons for changes:

• increase in separation and divorce
• especially for men^ = children likely to stay with mother
• decline in people marrying
• people choose to live alone
• widows

'LAT':

• 1 in 10 adults lat
• trend towars formalised relationships and families of choice
• public attitudes towards LAT are favourable
• Duncan and Phillips - Lat no longer seen as abornam; and no rejection of it

Childbearing:

• 4 in every 10 children are born outside of marriage
• women are having children later
• women have fewer children
• women remain childless

reasons for the changes

• increase in children outside of marrigae = decline in stima and increase in cohabitation
• later age women having children - smaller family sizes and women remain childless + women have more options other than motherhood

Lone - parent families:

• 90% of families headed to lone motherhood
• single women are biggest group of lone mothers
• child in lone parent = twice more likely to be in poverty

Reasons for patterns:

• the increase in divorce & separation 
• increase to never married women having children
• female headed lone parent families - expressive /nurturing.

Lone parenthood, the welfare state and poverty:

• New right - Murray -growth = over generous welfare state
• welfare estate creates a dependency culture
• solution - abolish benefits 
• Critics = lone parents are women, failure of fathers to pay maintainance, inedquate welfare benefits

• makes over 10% of all families
• ferri and smith - similar to first families but at greater risk in poverty
• allan & crow - may face problems with divided loyalties  eg, with the non-resident parents

Reasons for patterns:

• step families are formed when lone parents are form new partnerships - divorce
• children are from woman's side=woman more likely to keep children after divorce
• greater risk of poverty - more children to provide for