Becoming more equal

• MARCH OF PROGRESS VIEW

  Women going to work is leading to equal division of labour at home

  Men are becoming more involved in housework and childcare just as women are becoming more involved in paid work
• MOP View - Gershuny 1994


  Women working full-time is leading to more equal division of labour. Using time studies, he found that these women did less domestic work.
• MOP View - Sullivan 2000


  Trend towards women doing a smaller share of domestic work and men doing more, collected by her analysis of nationally representative data in 1975, 1987 and 1997. Her analysis also showed increase in couples with equal division of labour and that men were more involved in traditional women’s tasks.
• MOP view - British social attitudes survey


  Found a Fall in number of people who think it's the man's job to earn money and the woman's job to look after home and family. In 1984, 45% men and 41% women agreed with this view, but in 2012 only 13% of men and 12% of women agreed

  - These trends highlight change in traditional division of labour.
• FEMINIST VIEW

  • Women going into paid work hasn’t led to greater equality.
  • There’s little sign of the new man.
• F view- BSA survey (2012)

  Shows men did 8 hours housework, whereas women did 13 hours.

  The survey also found that couples continue to divide tasks along traditional gender lines. For example, women were more likely to do the laundry and prepare meals, while men do repairs around the house.
• F view - A03 of BSA (2012)

  One thing that surveys do not measure is qualitative differences in the taks men and women perform. For example, Allan 1985 argues women’s tasks are less intrinsically satisfying,

  Another problem with surveys is that they focus on quantifiable aspects such as who performs which tasks and how much time they spend on them. This tells us nothing about who takes responsibility for ensuring that the tasks are done.
• F view - Boulton 1983 argues fathers perform specific childcare tasks but mothers take responsibility for child’s security and well-being. This is supported by:


  Ferri and Smith 1996 - found fathers took responsibility for childcare in fewer than 4% of families.

  Dex and Wood 2007- found 1% of fathers took responsibility of caring for a sick child.

  Braun, Vincent and Ball 2011 - found in only 3 of 70 studied families the father was main carer.
• Explanations for gender division - Crompton and Lyonette


  1. Cultural/ideological explanation

  • DOL determined by norms and values. (societal expectations)

  2. Material/economic explanation

  • DOL determined by financial factors. (who earns more)
• Cultural explanation - evidence??

  Gershuny (1994) found couples whose parents had an equal relationship were more likely to follow.

  Man Yee Kan (2001) found younger men do more domestic work.

  BSA Survey (2013) found <10% under 35s agreed with traditional DOL compared to 30% over 65s.

  Dunne (1999) found lesbian couples had more symmetrical relationships due to the absence of traditional heterosexual gender scripts.
• Material explanation - Evidence

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

  Amber & Ginn (1995) found middle class couples more able to buy labour saving devices, ready meals, and get child help.

  Ramos (2003) found where woman is fulltime breadwinner, and man is unemployed, they do equal domestic labour.

  Sullivan shows working fulltime makes a difference in terms of the amount of domestic work for each partner.