Roles and Relationships between men and women

• Perspectives on Gender Roles- Parsons

  men= instrumental

  women= expressive
• Perspectives on Gender Roles- Young and Willmott

  Argued that the Relationship between men and women have become more equal with men and women now taking on both paid and unpaid work and occupying joint conjugal roles.
• Perspectives on Gender Roles- individualisation- Giddens

  argued family diversity has become more democratised as both partners can leave if they no longer find their relationship satisfactory.
• Perspectives on Gender Roles- Feminism- Oakley

  argues that the roles of men and women are not natural but learned through socialisation. Criticised young and Willmott as only a small % of men could actually be said to have a high level of participation in domestic work.
• Perspectives on Gender Roles- Postmod

  Argues we cannot make generalisations about the roles of men and women in the family, noting that diversity of experience and changes that occur through a persons life.
• Domestic Division of Labour- Gershunny

  Compared data from 70's and in 1997 on time budget research and found women still did 60% of household but had been a gradual increase in men's contribution.
• Domestic Division of Labour- Dunscombe and Marsden

  argued women now take a triple shift: paid work, domestic work, and emotional work.
• Domestic Division of Labour- Catherine Hakim

  Criticised the idea of there being an imbalance when we study the domestic division of labour arguing that if you add up the amount of the time that men and women spend doing paid and unpaid work it is equal and often men do more.
• Diversity in the Division of labour- Ethnicity- Berthoud

  Found South Asian families were more likely to adopt traditional gender roles that white families and that African-Caribbean families more likely to be headed by lone mothers and extended families had more of a role.
• Diversity in the Division of labour- Social Class- Man Yee Khan

  Found that m.class women do less housework, suggesting that for every £10,000 increase in annual income received, domestic work was decreased by two hours a week.
• Diversity in the Division of labour- Sexuality- Weeks

  Found same sex couples negotiated on how domestic chores were divided.
• Diversity in the Division of labour- Sexuality- Dunne

  Found that in households with lesbian couples housework was shared.
• Family Power- Hakim

  challenged the idea that there are significant differences between men and women in regard to power within the family arguing that about 20% of women were "work-centered" where for most women, family is either equally as important or more important than their paid work.
• Family Power- Hardill et al

  found in their study of m.class couples, often women would defer to husbands on large decisions such as mortgages and car purchases.
• Family Power- Parsons

  Functionalists argue that men occupy different roles but these roles are equal and complementary.
• Family Power- Chares and Kerr

  found key part of women's domestic role was preparing food for their husbands return home from work.