Domestic division and power relationships

• Domestic division of labour


  The roles that men and women play in relation to housework, children and paid work
• Instrumental and expressive roles

  • Instrumental role - providing for the family as the breadwinner
  • Expressive role - primary socialisation, meeting emotional needs as the homemaker and housewife
• Traditional nuclear family


  Separate and distinct roles based on biological differences. This division of labour benefits men, women, children and society (new right)
• Parsons 1955 - functionalists model of the family


  • Husband has an instrumental role as the breadwinner
  • Wife has an expressive role as the primary socialiser and meeting emotional needs as the homemaker and housewife
• Young and Willmott - tradition segregated division of labour


  Is breaking down, men are now taking a greater share of domestic tasks and more wives are becoming wage earners
• Feminist view


  The division of labour isn't natural, it only benefits men as the breadwinner makes financial decisions
• Advantages of traditional division of labour

  • Emotional support for all
  • Everyone's needs are met - also economic needs are met
  • More family interactions - working as a unit
  • Less conflict because of different standards
  • Targeted personal socialisation
  • Less pressure state to intervenes
• Disadvantages of traditional division of labour

  • Modern living requires two incomes
  • Model is out dated
  • Lack of freedom and choice
  • Dads may benefit being more involved in family
  • Who supports mothers emotional needs
  • Open to patriarchal control
  • Women doing unpaid labour (fem)
• Symmetrical families


  Roles of husband and wives now similar
• Young and Wilmott 1973 - the 'march of progress', family life is gradually improving for all its members becoming more equal and democratic
• Symmetrical family


  • Women now go to work although this may be part time, men now help with housework and childcare, family is more home centre and spend leisure time together
• Reasons for changes towards symmetrical families

  • Changes in women's positions including marriages women going to work
  • Geographical mobility as more couples live away from where they grew up
  • New technology and labour saving devices
  • Higher standards of living
• Segregated conjugal roles


  Couple have separate roles, a male breadwinner and a female homemaker as in Parsons model, leisure activity also tended to be separate
• Integrated/joint conjugal roles


  Couples share tasks such as homework and child care, they are more likely to do leisure things together
• Feminist view of housework


  Reject the 'march of progress' view, men and women remain unequal in family and women still do most of the housework, the family is male dominated and women play a dependent role, women still bear the bulk of domestic labour as well as working- their lives have gotten harder, they are still dependent on men as women are more likely to take up part time work and there is a pay gap so they earn less and are therefore financially dependent on their husband (this also effects MC women)
• Changes are more likely in young couple with 75% of women claiming to do less housework than their mother, this however doesn't mean it is symmetrical
• Ann Oakley - some evidence of men helping in the home but not to extent of symmetry, only 15% had high levels of participation in housework and only 25% with children
• Husband more likely to share in childcare than housework but in more pleasurable aspects such as taking them our for an afternoon and helping out, this left more time for mum to do housework
• Mary Boulton (1983) fewer than 20% of husbands took a major role in childcare
• Oakley the rise of the housewife, instead of a march of progress the housewife role has become more dominant, industrialisation in 19th century saw separation of paid work from the home, women were gradually excluded from the workplace and confined to the home with responsibility for housework and childcare, this made them financially dependent on men (means that the house wife has been socially construction by society)
• New men


  In touch with their feminine side so helping out at home
• Gershuny - moving towards equality


  1994
• Couples parents who had an equal relationship were more likely to share housework
• Changes in values


  Gradually adapting to fact that women are now working full time
• Men may be doing more housework they tend to take responsibility for different tasks
• Parental role models


  We often learn our domestic roles from our parents (socialisation) if they have equal roles we are to
• Commercialisation of housework


  1. Housework has become commercialised - quick easy to use product means less need to be done
  2. Women working-can afford these
• This has lead to the death of the homeswifes (criticism of okaly rise of housework)
• Poor women can't afford these good services
• Doesn't prove couples are sharing roles equally
• Dual burden


  Have to now do the paid work and the unpaid work. Adds stress and pressure or women. More to do than before
• Family is still partriarchal. Men are benifiting from women earning and the housework
• Increased employment of women has little impact on sharing of housework
• Emotional work


  Women are more likely to do jobs that involved emotional work. Same applies at home. Women don't just do double shift of working and housework but also a triple shift of emotional work
• Men get far more from domestic work than they give back. Their financial support comes with strings attached. Men usually make decisions on spending money
• Decision to have children dramatically changes life of mother rather than farther
• If mother is breadwinner and farther stays home they do the same amount of housework
• Domestic violence is believed to be the most common type of violence with in the UK
• Research shows that violence by men against women accounts for 1/3 all reported crimes
• One incident is reopened every minute to police (Stanko 2000)