Are Couples becoming more Equal?

• The March of Progress View: Gershuny


  Argues that women working full-time is leading to a more equal division of labour in the home. Using time studies, he found that women working full-time did less domestic work than women who don't.
• The March of Progress View: Sullivan 


  Analysis of nationally representative data collected from 1975 to 1997 found a trend towards women doing a smaller share of domestic work, and men doing more. The analysis showed an increase in the number of couples with an equal division of labour, and that men were participating in more traditional 'women's' tasks.

  In 1975, unemployed women did 82%, whereas in 1997 employed women did 60%.
• The March of Progress View: British Social Attitudes Survey (2013)


  Found a fall in the number of people who think its a man's job to earn money and a women's job to look after the home and family. In 1984, 45% of men and 41% of women agreed with this view. By 2013, only 13% of men and 12% of women agreed.
• The Feminist View

  They argue that women going into paid work hasn't lead to greater equality in the division of domestic labour. There is little sign of a 'new man' who does an equal share of housework and childcare, while women now carry a dual burden- as evidence from the British Social Attitudes Survey shows.
• The Feminist View: British Social Attitudes Survey Evidence

  How much do men do?

  In 2012, men did 8 hours of housework a week on average, whereas women did 13 hours. Similarly, men spent 10 hours on care for the family, whereas women spent 23 hours. Overall, women did twice as much as men. 60% of women felt the division of domestic labour was unjust because they were doing more than their fair share.
• The Feminist View: British Social Attitudes Survey (2012) Evidence

  Who does what?

  Couples continue to divide household tasks into traditional gender lines. For example, women are much more likely to do the laundry (70%) and do the household cleaning (56%)- while men were more likely to do small repairs around the house (75%). These patterns have remained the same since 1994.
• The Feminist View: Allan


  The British Social Attitudes Survey doesn't measure the qualitative differences in the tasks men and women perform. For example, Allan argues that women's tasks, such as washing and cleaning, are less intrinsically satisfying (men's activities have greater inherent satisfaction that women's).
• Taking Responsibility for Children- Support for Boulton 


  Ferri and Smith: found fathers took responsibility for childcare in fewer than 4% of families.

  Dex and Ward: found that although fathers had high levels of involvement with their 3-year-olds (78% played with their children), only 1% of fathers took main responsibility of caring for a child when they're ill.
• Taking Responsibility for Children- Support for Boulton

  Braun, Vincent and Ball: found that in 2011, only 3 out of 70 families studied had the father as the main carer. Most were 'background fathers'- helping with childcare was more about their relationship with their partner than responsibility towards their children. Most fathers had a 'provider ideology'- seeing their role as breadwinners. Mothers saw themselves as primary carers due to ideas about 'intensive mothering' within the media.
• Taking Responsibility for Children- Emotion Work and the Triple Shift

  Hochschild claims 'emotion work' is another aspect of taking responsibility for other family members. Feminists claim that women are required to perform emotion work to manage the emotions of family members (like handling jealousies between siblings), to ensure everyone is kept happy. While at the same time, exercising control over their own emotions. Duncombe and Marsden argue women have to perform a 'triple shift'.
• Taking Responsibility for 'Quality Time'

  Southerton claims this is a females role. It has become difficult in today's late modern society which is now a 24/7 society, and has flexible work patterns. Causing people's time to be more fragmented and 'de-routinised'. Also, some studies show men and women have roughly equal amounts of leisure time, but they have different experiences of it. Men are more likely to have consolidated blocks of uninterrupted leisure time, whereas women's is punctuated by childcare. Women are more likely to multitask, indicating they are carrying a dual burden.
• Summary:

  Evidence considered suggests there may have been some movement towards an equal division of labour, but not much. There is conflicting evidence about how much time men and women spend on domestic tasks- Gershuny suggests a move towards greater equality, whereas British Social Attitudes Survey indicates a continuing inequality.
• Explaining the Gender Division of Labour: Crompton and Lyonette


  The Cultural or Ideological Explanation of Inequality:

  In this view, it is determined by patriarchal norms and values which shape gender norms in our culture. Women perform more domestic labour simply because this is what society expects them to do, and has socialised them to do.
• Explaining the Gender Division of Labour: Crompton and Lyonette

  The Material or Economic Explanation of Inequality:

  In this view, it is the fact that women generally earn less than men, this means its economically rational for women to do more housework and childcare while men spend more of their time earning money.
• Evidence for the Cultural Explanation

  Gershuny: found couples whose parents had a more equal relationship are more likely to to share the housework equally themselves. Suggesting parental role models are important. Claiming that social values are gradually adapting to the fact that women are now working more full-time; establishing a new norm that men should do more domestic work.
• Evidence for the Cultural Explanation

  Kan: found younger men do more domestic work. Similarly, the Future Foundation found that most males claimed to do more housework than their fathers, and most women said they did less than their mothers. Suggesting a generational shift.

  Dunne: found lesbian couples had a more symmetrical relationship as there is an absence of traditional heterosexual 'gender scripts'- the norms set out that men and women are expected to play.
• Evidence for the Material Explanation

  Kan: found that for every £10,000 a year more a women earns, she does 2 hours less housework per week.

  Arber and Gin: found better-paid, m/c women were more able to buy in commercially produced products and services (such as labour-saving devices, ready meals, domestic help and childcare), rather than spending time carrying out labour-intensive domestic tasks themselves.
• Evidence for the Material Explanation

  Ramos: found that where the women is the full-time breadwinner and the man is unemployed, he does just as much domestic labour as she does.

  Sullivan: shows that working full-time rather than part-time makes the biggest difference in terms of how much domestic work each partner does. In 1997, women working full-time do 60%, and women working part-time do 69%. Suggesting working full-time brings women's earnings closer to that of their partners.
• Counterpoint for the Material Explanation

  However, women continue to earn less than men: in 7 out of 8 households men earn more. This is partly because women, especially those with young children, are more likely to work part-time. Crompton thus concludes that there is no immediate prospect of a more equal division of labour if it depends on the economic equality between the sexes.
• Conclusion

  Feminists argue that the root of this problem is patriarchy; the patriarchal norms and values shape society's expectations about the domestic roles that men and women ought to perform. Patriarchy also ensures that women earn less at work and so have less bargaining power in the home. Until the patriarchy is successfully challenged in home and the workplace, it will remain unequal.