revision cards

TOPIC 1: COUPLES

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THE DOMESTIC DIVISION OF LABOUR
roles men and women play relating to childcare, housework and paid work.
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PARSONS: Instrumental and Expressive roles-in the traditional nuclear family according to parsons and his functionalist model of the family there is a clear division of labour The HUSBAND has the EXPRESSIVE role (the breadwinner) and the WIFE has the
INSTRUMENTAL role (homemaker, housewife).
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PARSONS claims that this divsion of labour is beneficial to both men and women, their children and wider society the new right also share this view
YOUNG and WILMOTT argue that men now have a greater share of domestic tasks and that women are wage earners FEMINISTS argue that this view only benefits men.
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JOINT AND SEGREGATED CONJUGAL ROLES
BOTT: holds the theory that there are two conjugal roles within the family, SEGREGATED conjugal roles where the roles are seperate and JOINT conjugal roles where the couple shares tasks
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SYMMETRICAL FAMILY
(YOUNG and WILMOTT)
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YOUNG and WILMOTT hold a march of progress view of the history of the family and believe that families have made a move from segregated roles and that they have become more equal and democratic making a symmetrical family where the roles are not
identical but are now more similar:
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~women now go out to work ~men help with housework and children ~couples spend their leisure time together
YOUNG and WILMOTT found that couples that are young are most commonly symmetrical, also if they are geographically and socially isolated or 'better off' e.g. money.
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according to YOUNG and WILMOTT the symmetrical nuclear family is the result of major social changes
~geographical mobility - couples moving away from where they grew up ~new technology (labour saving devices) ~higher standards of living
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FEMINISTS VIEW ON HOUSEWORK
FEMINISTS reject the march of progress view arguin that little has changed and the men and women still remain unequal and state that women still do more housework and that the reason this is, is because family and society is more male dominated and
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patriarchal, believing that women have to depend on men.
OAKLEY a feminist describes the SYMMETRICAL FAMILY view as over-exaggerated and critiscises that saying YOUNG and WILMOTTS research of husbands making the family breakfast once a week is 'hardly convincing evidence of symmetry.
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oakley found that men were much more likely to take the children of the mothers hands instead of doing housework, but sees this benefits men by taking away the mothers reward of childcare and can give her more housework
BOULTON says that YOUNG and WILMOTT exaggerated the fathers roles in childcare rather than looked at their responsibility and it was almost always the mother responsible for the childs security and well-being.
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FUTURE FOUNDATIONS study of 1,000 adults found that 60% of men claim to do more housework than their fathers and 75% of women claim to do less housework than their mothers.
RISE OF THE HOUSEWIFE ROLE (oakley) rather than seeing a march of progress oakley says the housewife role has since the 19th century become the more dominant role for married women.
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idustrialisation and the rise of factory production in the the 19th century led to seperation of paid work from the home which women were a part of but were gradually excluded from and confined to the home with sole responsibility for house work and
chilcare whilst men were the sole breadwinners. Forcing upn women subordination and economic dependence, in which the housewife role is socially constructed and not 'naturally' suited to a womens nature in parsons opinion. OAKLEY points out that in
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the 20th century the housewife role is still a womans primary role and that women in low paid jobs are usually and often extensions of the housewife role,
examples of this is: nursing, cleaning, secretarial work and childcare.
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THE IMPACT OF PAID WORK
in the 21st century three quarters of married or cohabiting women in the UK are economically active compared to the 70's
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sociologists are interestyed if there is a trend towards equal division of domestic tasks between partners or if women are having to carry a dual burden paid work with domestic work.
a study from MAN-YEE KAN found that employment, education and age affected the amount of housework a women did: better paid, younger women with a better education did less house work. (every £10,000 increase in annual pay resulted in 2 hours less
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housework a week.
GERSHUNY found that wives who worked full time did less house work, and that women who did not work or only worked part time did 82/83% of the housework whilst women who worked full time did 73%and even couples whose parents an equal relationship
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were more likely to share an equal relationship themselves.
GERSHUNY explains this trend toward greater equality creates a change in values and parental role models, social values are adapting to women working full time
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crompton exlapins that despite women working more the still only earn up to 3 quarters of what a man would earn so with the remainder of unequal earnings so to will there be an unequal division of labour in the home.
COMMERCIALISATION OF HOUSEWORK (stresses the two major economic developments that has reduced the burden of housework on women) SILVER and SCHOR.
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commercialised house work- the goods and services women had to once produce are now mass produced and supplied by either supermarkets or fast food industries, even micro-wave ovens reduce the labour. women working is the other economic development
that allows the women to buy these goods and services.
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silver and schor claim that housework for women has decreased and schor even says that due to commercialisation there has been a death of the housewife role, but critics of this say poor women can not afford the economically developed factors that
reduce housework and also does not prove that the remaining chores are not equally shared.
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DUAL BURDEN
FEMINISTS argue that women have been aquired a dual burden of paid work and unpaid housework and they believe the family is still patriarchal and men still benefit from womens earnings and domestic labour.
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EMOTION WORK
sociologists such as david morgan apply this idea to the family, he illustrates it with the example of a sick child. the mother would take control of physical care and monitering the child, handling their fears, frustrations of the child too.
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LESBIAN COUPLES AND GENDER SCRIPTS
DUNNE explains that little change in division of labour is due to GENDER SCRIPTS these are norms or expectations of gender roles that heterosexual couples are expected to play.
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this is contrasted with lesbian couples by DUNNE where she believes gender scripts do not operate the same way. in her study of 37 cohabiting lesbians and their dependent children there is equal share of hoursework, childcare equal importance given
to their careers and an equal positive view on childcare. which DUNNE further argues that it is because of the way heterosexuals are pressured to conform to masculine or feminine gender scripts.
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one of the lesbians from the study said in a heterosexual relationship there is a subconscious belief that women are suppose to do housework.
This supports the radical feminist view that heterosexual relationships are patriarchal and equality can only be achieved in a same sex relationship.
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DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
domestic violence is viewed as the behaviour of a disturbed or sick individual and the causes are psychological over social but some sociologists challenge this view.
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domestic violence is considered to be too widespread to be the work of a few disturped people
a survery from MIRRLEES-BLACK estimares that there are 6.6million domestic assaults are year most of them being physical.
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Domestic violence does not randomly occur and follows social patterns such as the violence is mainly from men against women.
COLEMAN ET AL found that women were more likely to suffer intimate abuse across all four types ( partner abuse, family abuse, sexual abuse and stalking).
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MIRRLEES-BLACK found that most victims are women, 99% of incidents against women are committed by men. 1 in 4 women have been assaulted by her partner in her life and 1 in 8 continuously assaulted.
DOBASH AND DOBASH found that violent incidents could have been set off as to what the husbands thought was a challenge of his authority e.g. his wife asking where he has been and why he is late.
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arguements say that marriage legitimates violence against women by giving men power and women have to be dependent.
The problem with domestic violence is that women dont report it statistics show that women on average a women will be assaulted 35 times before she reports it.
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there is also often reluctance to report these cases put foreward nor to investigate or prosecute them, CHEAL says that this is because police and other state agencies are not prepared to invade family life and they have three assumptions about it.
the family's a private sphere so access should be limited, family is a good thing so the dark side is often neglected, 'individuals are free agents' they say women can leave if they are abused which isn't always true if they're economically dependent
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

INSTRUMENTAL role (homemaker, housewife).

Back

PARSONS: Instrumental and Expressive roles-in the traditional nuclear family according to parsons and his functionalist model of the family there is a clear division of labour The HUSBAND has the EXPRESSIVE role (the breadwinner) and the WIFE has the

Card 3

Front

YOUNG and WILMOTT argue that men now have a greater share of domestic tasks and that women are wage earners FEMINISTS argue that this view only benefits men.

Back

Preview of the back of card 3

Card 4

Front

BOTT: holds the theory that there are two conjugal roles within the family, SEGREGATED conjugal roles where the roles are seperate and JOINT conjugal roles where the couple shares tasks

Back

Preview of the back of card 4

Card 5

Front

(YOUNG and WILMOTT)

Back

Preview of the back of card 5
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