couples

• why are roles within couples changing?

  -women in paid, full-time work

  -geographical mobility

  -changing gender roles > less pressure to conform to stereotypes

  -technology/living standards > tech does housework

  -commercialisation of domestic labour > growth of industry
• Willmott & Young - March of Progress


  -families becoming more symmetrical
• Willmott & Young - supporting evidence


  GERSHUNY - found women who work full-time did less domestic work

  BSA - between 1984 & 2012 there was fall in number of people who held traditional views on domestic division of labour
• Oakley


  -believes men are helping with housework but not doing enough

  -15% of husbands had high level of participation in housework
• Dual Burden & Triple Shift


  -Dual Burden - women working two shifts (paid & domestic)

  -Hochschild > women perform emotional work

  -Duncombe & Marsden > women work 'triple shift'
• Gurshuny's work - weaknesses

  -didn't take into responsibility for tasks into account

  -even when women work, they're responsible for domestic work

  -don't take into account ways women experience quality time
• Southerton - quality time


  -mothers must organise family's quality time

  -men & women have near equal amounts of leisure time but experience it differently

  -men = 'blocks' of uninterrupted leisure time

  -women = leisure time 'punctuated' by childcare
• allowance system


  -men give wives allowance

  -they have to budget to meet family needs
• pooling 


  -both parents have access to income

  -joint responsibility
• money management : key study

  -Pahl & Vogler (feminists)

  -researched money management in 100 dual-earner couples

  -found pooling most common form of MM

  -husbands still had more control over pooled money
• decision making : key study 


  -Edgell

  -interviewed middle class couples

  -theorised trend due to men earning more

  -very important decisions = predominantly men

  -important decisions = shared

  -less important decisions = predominantly women
• Laurie & Gershuny - support for March of Progress


  -by 1995, 70% of couples had equal say in decisions

  -women who were high earning professionals more likely to have equal say
• cultural explanation for inequality in decision making & money


  -women have less control over resources & decision making

  -because not part of female gender role in patriarchal society

  -equality will be achieved when patriarchal gender roles challenged
• material explanation for inequality in resources & decision making


  -makes sense for women to have less control over resources & decision making because earn less

  -equality achieved when women earn as much as partners
• personal life perspective on money

  -focuses on meanings couples give to control over money

  -control over money often more about convenience than power/inequality
• Numan


  -controlled money has no automatic / fixed meaning

  -different couples define money in different ways
• Weeks et al.


  -couples pool money for household bills

  -keep own spending money seperate
• Smart 


  -same sex couples give different meanings to control over money

  -isn't related to power/inequality but convenience

  -lack of traditional 'gender scripts'
• domestic violence


  -any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive or threatening behaviour, violence or abuse

  -between those aged 16 or over who are/have intimate partners or family members

  -regardless of gender / sexuality
• widespread


  -DV too widespread to be work of a few disturbed individuals

  -doesn't occur randomly, follows social patterns
• crime survey for England & Wales 2020

  -5.5% of adults 16-74 experienced DV in 12 months prior
• Women's Aid Federation

  -domestic violence accounts for between 1/6 - 1/4 of all recorded crime
• Home Office 2019 (DV)

  -estimated social & economic cost for victims of domestic abuse in year ending march 2017 in England & Wales was £66billion
• majority of domestic violence - gender

  -majority of domestic violence tends to be men (90%)

  -largest category of murder victims in most years is children under 5, at hands of family members

  -rape in marriage is common

  -survey in 1989 > 1 in 7 women been raped by husband
• Coleman et al (2007)


  -women more likely to have experienced 'intimate violence'

  -2 women a week killed by partner / former partner compared to 1 man every 3 weeks
• Dobash & Dobash


  -interviewed women in women's refuges in Scotland

  -police & court records to research domestic violence

  -found violent incidents could be set off what husband saw as challenge to authority

  -argue marriage legitimates violence against women
• Cheal (1991)


  -police & other state agencies not prepared to become involved in family

  -make 3 assumptions about family

  > family is a private sphere

  > family is a good thing, neglect 'darker side'

  > individuals are free agents, women free to leave
• official statistics on domestic violence

  -victims may be unwilling to report instances

  -Yearkshire (1997) found on average women suffer 35 assualts before reporting

  -police & reporters may be reluctant to record, investigate & prosecute
• radical feminist explanation of domestic violence

  -DV is inevitable feature in patriarchal society

  -serves to preserve power all men have over all women

  -helps explain why most DV is committed by men
• strengths of radical feminist explanation for DV


  -provides explanation for gender gap in DV parterns
• criticisms for radical feminist explanation on DV

  -not all men are aggressive & violent

  -fails to explain female violence

  -Mirrlees-Black identified other social groups at higher risk of domestic violence

  > lower social classes

  > rented accomodation

  > drug users
• Firestone & Millet


  -Dobash & Dobash's findings are evidence of patriarchy

  -family main source of female oppression

  -women dominated through domestic violence and/or threat of it
• material explanation

  -domestic violence caused by social inequality

  -those on low incomes / living in crowded housing likely to experience more stress

  -increases risk of conflict & violence

  -helps explain why, those with less power, status, wealth or income are often at greater risk of DV
• strengths of materialist explanation on explanations of DV

  -those in lower social classes face more social inequality > more stress

  -helps explain class inequalities in status on DV

  -marxist feminists see inequality in capitalism as causing DV
• criticisms of materialist explanation on causes of DV

  -doesn't consider wealthy people committing / suffering domestic abuse
• Wilkinson - materialist explanation on DV

  -less power, status, wealth, income = greater risk of DV