Division of Domestic Labour and Power Relationships

• The Office for National Statistics estimated unpaid domestic labour was worth £1 trillion a year
• Women generally do more domestic labour than men
• Marxist feminists say this is free labour that allows money to be spent elsewhere on the economy
• 75% of mothers are in employment vs over 90% of fathers
• Fathers are more likely to be employed than men with no children - the same is true for women!
• Women are more likely to reduce working hours than men
• Oakley - dual burden: women work paid jobs and then perform unpaid labour at home
• Delphy and Leonard said unpaid domestic labour was a form of oppression of women
• While women are expected to perform domestic labour and childcare, if men do it, it's 'helping out'
• Crompton and Lynette found that the more a woman earned, the more domestic labour her partner would do
• Emotional labour refers to the regulation of emotional needs within the family
• Parsons' sex role theory would suggest women are better suited for emotional labour, but is very stereotypical
• Ansley - women are takers of shit - expected to absorb anger and frustration of husbands
• Duncombe and Marsden found that women felt like their emotional needs were neglected within the family
• Beck said due to the negotiated family people are seeking out others who can care for their emotional needs too
• There may be the emergence of the 'new man' - men who are more emotionally available, caring, and present for their partners
• Miller found men were taking a greater role in the lives of their children
• The crisis of masculinity may mean some men revert back to more traditional masculine roles
• Beck said uncertainty in modern employment means men identify more by their relations with others eg as a father
• The increase in divorce might suggest women's dissatisfaction with men's inability to provide emotional support
• Conjugal roles are the roles taken on by men and women in a relationship
• Segregated roles mean men and women have different roles, while joint conjugal roles mean men and women perform the same roles
• Wilmott and Young - March of Progress: the family is becoming more symmetrical
• Even in the symmetrical family domestic labour was still split into gender domains
• Duncombe and Marsden suggested the triple shift - that women had to perform paid work, domestic labour and emotional care
• Gershunny says there has been a movement towards equality but men lag behind when it comes to domestic labour
• Some domestic labour is now either done by men or contracted out, eg nurseries and after school clubs
• Technological advancements mean housework is much easier and faster, such as washing machines and dishwashers
• It may simply be that women are doing less work, not that men are doing more
• Kan and Laurie found that there remained a gender divide in lower social classes
• Hardill et al found that in dual earner families, men were still more influential in financial decision making
• Pahl found that when money was pooled it was male-dominated
• Individualised accounts may be influenced by the gender pay gap meaning men in the family still have more spending power
• Treas and Tao found 75% of couples made joint decisions on children
• Gatrell found work would make assumptions about a woman's aspirations and commitment once she became a mother
• Housing is more likely to be handled by men
• Pahl suggested men had higher financial status meaning it was easier for them to deal with housing
• Families are more likely to move for the man's career than the woman's
• Edgell found women were more responsible for small household decisions like decorating
• This does not factor in women who were homeowners before marriage or who are homeowners with no partner