last min mock

• Young & Willmot- Symmetrical family

  • studied middle-class in London (1973) and found that families were becoming increasingly more symmetrical due to the increase in female employment and the increase in conjugal roles
• Y&W 4 developments that led to the symmetrical family

  • increase in female employment increases the importance of women in the family
  • geographical mobility, more families moving away from their traditional w/c backgrounds, and adopting new lifestyles (linked to upward social mobility too)
  • advancements in technology
  • higher standards of living changed the attitudes to housework and role of women
• Y&W 4 developments that led to the symmetrical family

  • increase in female employment increases the importance of women in the family
  • geographical mobility, more families moving away from their traditional w/c backgrounds, and adopting new lifestyles (linked to upward social mobility too)
  • advancements in technology
  • higher standards of living changed the attitudes to housework and role of women
• Gershuny

  • found through research in 1991 that women who worked and earned more were subject to less housework, due to their raised status in the family
  • this challenged societal stereotypes, the notion of there being a “man of the house” was nullified, as women are now able to also seize positions of high importance within the family, as they also bought in a large income
  • the idea of the “New Man” emerged, as men were becoming more accepting of their share of housework and childcare
• criticism of Gerhsuny;

  • although the “New Man” took on more domestic duties, Oakley found that they tended to cherry-pick the most enjoyable activities, such as playing with the children, leaving the tedious, more difficult tasks to the woman
• the fact that we live in a male-dominated society, in which patriarchal nuclear families are common, it is still in men’s interests to relegate women to the subordinate housewife role
• Domestic violence is defined as physical, psychological, sexual or financial violence that takes within a family dynamic, forming patterns of coercive or controlling behaviour
• Greer, a radical feminist, argues that the family is a repressive institution that reinforced patriarchal control in the private sphere, she argues that it is in women’s best interest to subscribe to alternative living arrangements, such as practising sexual apartheid and political lesbianism
• Greer states that women who entered relationships with men were ”sleeping with the enemy”.