Gender roles, domestic labour and power in the family

• What Did Parsons argue that a husband and a wife has a role in the family?

  The husband has the instrumental role, which means he is the breadwinner who earns the money to support the family, whereas the wife has an expressive role, which means she’s the housewife who raises the children and carries out the housework
• What does Parsons argue about this division of labour?

  That it was based on biological differences with women naturally suited to the nurturing role and men to the provider. He claimed that this division of labour was beneficial to both men and women.
• What did Elizabeth Bott distinguish between 2 types of conjugal roles within marriage:

  • segregated conjugal roles : well, a couple have separate roles and male breadwinner and a female homemaker just as Parsons refers to.
  • Joint conjugal roles: couple tasks, such as household and childcare and spend their leisure time together
• What did Young and Wilmott claim?

  That segregated, conjugal roles of the division of labour was no longer than normal. Nowadays couples shares the housework and shares their leisure time. The husband increasingly helps with domestic chores, and with raising the children, though this is still the main responsibility of the wife.
• What causes of the symmetrical family did Young and Wilmott discover?

  • The changes in women’s position, especially married women being able to work
  • Geographical mobility as more couples away from the community in which they grow up
  • New technology and labour saving devices, such as dishwasher and washing machines
  • Higher Standards of living
• What are the criticisms of Wilmott and Young’s theory

  • the symmetrical family neglect to consider that a good deal of women’s labour in the home is emotional and mental, and largely neglected by studies
  • Although commentators have argued that men are only doing the glamorous tasks in the home, such as cooking meals
• (feminist views of housework) Anne Oakley ‘Housework’

  Oakley dismissed the view of Wilmot and Young, and argued that for men to be classed as sharing the domestic labour, they only have to do one chore in this study

  She found in her study of housework that wives still housework and child rearing as their role and received little help from husband
• (feminist views of housework) Mary Boulton ‘allocation of domestic tasks’

  She argues that studies that focus on allocation of tasks in the home, exaggerates the extent of men’s involvement in childcare, and she denies that question about who does what give a true picture of conjugal roles. She argues that men might help with particular tasks It is still women who retain the primary responsibility for childcare.
• (feminist views of housework) Wards and Hetherington ’sex-typing of domestic tasks’

  Found that sex typing of domestic tasks were still strong in the 1990s with wives, being 30 times more likely to be the last person to have done the washing up. They also found that man was only carry out routine female tasks when partners were not around to do them.
• (The feminist view) what did Graham Allen say?

  Work carried out in the home by women may be tedious and less satisfying than the more creative tasks that are done by men
• (The feminist view) what did ferri and smith find?

  Fathers took responsibility in childcare one third of the time whereas women experienced dual burden
• (The feminist view) What did Duncombe and Marsden find?

  • Women are involved in paid employment.
  • Do most of the domestic activities
  • Take on the emotional support role
  • they interviewed 40 couples and found that most women complained of men’s emotional distance. Women had to provide most of the immensely support and men did not see this as an issue, but rather that they had more important role of being the breadwinner to fulfil.
• (Explaining the gender division of labour) what is meant by the cultural or ideological explanation?

  Division of labour is due to patriarchal norms and values that shape gender roles in our culture. Women perform more domestic labour, simply because that is what society expects of them.
• (Explaining the gender division of labour) cultural or ideological explanation - evidence:

  Gillian Dunne found that lesbian couples had more symmetrical families and shared domestic tasks to avoid that heterosexual gender roles
• (Explaining the gender division of labour) what is meant by the material or economic explanation?

  Women generally earn less than men, so it’s economically rational for women to do more of the housework and childcare.
• (Explaining the gender division of labour) the material or economical explanation - evidence:

  Sullivan : working full time makes the biggest difference on how much domestic work is done. In terms of how much domestic work each partner does
• (division of labour is same sex households)

  Equality seems to be emphasised most same-sex couples claim that they strive to remove power differences from their relationship.
• (Division of labour in same sex households) what did Dunne study about this?

  she studied 37 cohabiting lesbian to some of them. Had children and childcare was shared. Similarly, housework tended to be shared equally.

  • she suggested two reasons why they are more equal.:
  • in same sex household gender inequalities do not affect them because they are both the same-sex.
• (Resources and decision making in households) what did Edgell say?

  Wives made more of the less important decisions such as domestic spending and children clothes.

  Important decisions were made gently such as where to educate children are all go on holiday.

  Very important decisions were made by men, such as finances, moving jobs or moving house

  • this suggests that men have more power than women in terms of a decision-making.
• What two things have sociologist argued about domestic violence?

  • DV is far too widespread to be simply the work of a few individuals it accounts up to a quarter of the recorded violent crime.
  • DV. Does not occur randomly but follows particular social patterns and the patterns have social causes.
• What research did Dobash and Dobash do on DV?

  Carried out interviews and questionnaires with women in Scottish refuge. They Cited examples of wives being slapped, pushed, beaten, raped, or killed by their husbands. Violent incidents could be set off by what a husband saw as a challenge to his authority, such as his wife, asking why he was late home for a meal.
• Radical Feminists- key argument

  • patriarchy is seen as the root cause of domestic violence
  • Men are viewed as the oppresses and exploits of women
  • Marriage and the family are key institutions used to maintain male dominance
  • Domestic violence is seen as a tool to preserve manpower over women
  • Radical feminists offer sociological explanation by linking domestic violence to wide structures of male power, rather than individual psychological causes
  • Argue that male control of state institutions explains the reluctance of police and courts to take domestic violence seriously
• Radical Feminists - Evaluation

  • Elliot criticises radical feminism for implying that all men benefit from the violence against women
  • Not all men are violent or support, male dominance
  • Radical feminists ignore female violence, such as child abuse by women and violence in lesbian relationships
  • They failed to explain which women are most at risk. They generalise the female experience.
  • ONS evidence shows that class, age and lifestyle factors also affect who is most likely to be a victim. It’s not just dependent on gender.
• Materialistic Explanation - Key arguments

  • focuses on economic and material inequality as the main cause of domestic violence
  • Willkinsom and Pickett argue that social inequality creates stress, which leads to more conflict and violence in families
  • Poor families, face more stress for money, housing and job insecurity, leading to tension and arguments.
  • Limited social support due to lack of time or resources reducing emotional outlets
  • These factors increase the risk of domestic violence, especially in lowing, overcrowded household
  • SO NOT, EVERYONE IS EQUALLY AT RISK
• Materialistic Explanation - Evaluation

  • Wilkinson and Pickett appraised for showing health, poverty and social class, impact family, stress and violence
  • Their approach explains why working class families may experience more domestic violence
  • However, they fail to explain why it is usually men who are the perpetrators
  • Unlike radical feminists, they do not address, gendered power relations, so they missed the gendered nature of domestic violence