Topic 3

• What is domestic division of labour

  The division of tasks, roles and duties within the household
• Parsons - Division of labour

  Instrumental role - The masculine role. Geared towards achieving success at work and earning money to support the family financially

  Expressive role - The feminine role. Socialisation of the young and meeting the families emotional needs
• AO3 - Parson & Division of labour

  Young and Willmott - Roles are outdated as women work a lot more

  Feminists - Division of labour is not natural and only benefits men

  Bott - Instrumental and expressive roles are instead conjugal roles
• Bott - Division of labour

  Conjugal roles are roles played by men and women.

  Segregated - Separate roles with leisure activities being separate

  Conjoined - Roles are shared and leisure is together
• March of progress - Equality of roles

  Young & Willmott: Family life is gradually getting equal as there is long term movement from segregated to joint, making the family symmetrical
• What family types are more commonly symmetrical according to Young and Willmott

  Younger couples

  Geographically isolated couples

  More affluent couples
• Why are families becoming more symmetrical

  Changes in the position of women

  Geographical mobility

  New technology

  Higher standards of living
• Future foundations

  60% of men claim to do more housework than their fathers

  76% of women claim to do less housework than their mothers
• Feminist view - Equality of roles

  Ann Oakley - Little has changed between men and women as there is still inequalities amongst men and women which stem from patriarchy

  Young and Willmott study exaggerated
• Findings of Oakley's research into roles

  15% of men had high level participation in housework

  25% of men had high level participation in childcare which tended to be the more fun activities
• Boulton

  Young and Willmott's findings were exaggerated as they looked at completion of tasks rather than responsibility
• Warde & Hetherington

  Women were 30x more likely to be the last person washing
• Gershunny - Paid work

  83% of unemployed women do housework

  73% of full time employed women do housework.

  This is a trend which is due to a gradual change in values of society. Men are beginning to do more housework but they take responsibility for different tasks
• Sullivan - Paid work


  Analysis of data from 75 and 97 found a trend towards the equality of roles
• Crompton - Paid work

  Agreed with Sullivan but suggests it is because women are beginning to have more power due to more financial contribution
• Man Yee Kan - Paid work

  Income, age and education hd a positive or negative correlation with the amount of housework that women do.

  For every 10k increase of salary, results in a 2 hour decrease of housework
• Ferri & Smith - Paid work


  Paid work has had little impact on household roles as women now experience a dual burden of paid work and maintaining the household
• What percentage of fathers were mainly responsible for children according to Ferri and Smith

  4%
• Morris - Paid work


  Even when men were unemployed and women were in paid work, men still did not do more than women around the house. This is due to losing the masculine role and avoiding domestic work
• Marsden - Paid work

  Talked about the triple shift in women

  • Paid work
  • Housework
  • Emotion work
• Silver and Schor - Commercialisation of housework

  Now women are earning money, they are contributing less to housework partly due to the commercialisation of housework. This refers to goods and services that women can not purchase instead of doing it themselves, making housework easier and less of it
• Dunne - Gender scripts

  Expectations laid out by society about the different roles played by men and women to explain differing roles in division of labour.

  Studied 37 lesbian couples with dependent children and compared their roles to the roles of hetereosexual couples
• Finding's of Dunne's research

  Lesbian couples were more likely to be viewed as equal, view childcare positively and had equal importance to both careers.
• Dunne - Explanations of differences in the role of lesbian and hetereosexual couples

  Women in lesbian couples interact in different ways because they do not feel the pressure to conform to male or female gender scripts
• AO3 - Dunne

  When one partner did a lot more paid work than the other, the time spent on domestic housework was equal
• Pahl & Vogler - Decision making

  Men usually control the family income and make important decisions as they usually contribute more money to the household. They identify two different types of control over family income

  • Pooling
  • Allowance system
• What is meant by pooling

  A type of control over family income where both partners have equal access to the income and joint responsibility over finance
• What is meant by allowance system

  A type of control over family income where men give women an allowance for family needs
• Pahl & Vogler - Pooling

  On the increase from 19% to 50%. More common among partners with full time work but men had more financial decision
• Hardill - Decision making

  Supports Pahl and Vogler

  Research of 30 dual career couples and found the most important decisions were made by men alone or joint and their career took priority
• Finch - Decision making

  Women's lives tended to revolve around their husband's career
• Edgell - Decision making 


  Important decisions were made by the husband who had the final say with less important decisions being made by the wife
• Home office definition of domestic violence

  Any violence between current or former partners in an intimate relationship wherever and whenever it occurs. The violence may include physical, sexual, emotional and financial abuse
• 2014-15 - DV

  216000 cases of DV
• 2009-10 - DV


  7% of women were victims

  4% of men were victims
• Nazroo - DV

  Men against women DV tended to be more serious
• Yearnshire

  Official statistics underestimate true extent of DV due to women's reluctance to report it to the police. Women suffer 35 assaults before they report it to the police. DV is the least likely violent crime to be reported
• Cheal 


  Police and other agencies are reluctant to become involved in the family as it is a private sphere which are free agents
• Dobash & Dobash 


  Women are more likely to be victims.

  1/8 women are repeatedly assaulted by their partners

  Violent incidents are set off by the husband seeing a threat to his authority
• Radical feminists - DV

  Studies such as Dobash and Dobash show patriarchal beliefs are present in the family making men the oppressors of women. The family is the main source of women's oppression and men dominate women through DV or the threat of it