Conjugal roles

• Bernice Martin

  Housework is a means of creating order and so a kind of power for women
• Willmott + Young 4 stages of the family

  > Pre industrial - organised unit, farm

  > Early industrial

  > Symmetrical / privatised nuclear - home centred

  > Asymmetrical
• Reasons for increased symmetry

  > More working wives

  > Change in the status of women

  > Move from extended to nuclear

  > Breakdown of kin based groups
• More working wives - symmetry

  Women are also earning money so are not completely dependent on husbands.

  Spending less time at home to do domestic work
• Changes in the status of women - symmetry

  More independence, power and confidence

  Greater expectations in relationships
• Move from extended to nuclear - symmetry

  Partners only rely on each other so more pressure for both to do childcare + housework
• Breakdown of kin based groups - symmetry

  Women return to work after having kids so less work to do around the house with less children and more outsourced help.
• What did Oakley find that contradicted Willmott + Young

  Their research was based on the question "do you help at least once a week with any household jobs?", which is not the same as them helping out all the time.

  > 76% Of employed women were housewives

  > 93% Of non-employed women were housewives
• What did Glenn Sacks find?

  Women do an average of 27 hours of housework a week, compared to 16 hours for men.

  > Academic survey
• Criticism of Sacks' research?

  The average man spends 14 hours a week more on the job than the average women, so men overall contribution is actually slightly higher than women's.
• What did Farrell say about Sacks' research?

  Fails to justify the misconception that our era is that of "the second shift woman and the shiftless man"
• What do feminists say about housework?

  Men and women list housework as one of their least enjoyable tasks. Since women do more, this shifts the advantage to men
• Criticism of Feminists view on housework

  While it is not enjoyable, people are much happier at home and in casual dress.

  Perhaps talking on the phone or watching TV while they work.
• What did Bott's study indicate?

  > Segregated - husband and wife had clear distinct responsibilities

  > Joint - the roles are more flexible, responsibility is shared

  Close-knit friendship networks were more likely to have segregated relationships (WC)

  Loose-knit more likely to have joint relationship (MC)
• Dennis, Henriques + Slaughter

  WC Mining community

  Husbands worked and spent leisure time with work colleagues, wives did housework and controlled the money.
• Dennis et al

  Workmates were seen as more important (husbands) as their lives depended on each other in the mine
• Criticisms of Dennis, Hendriques + Slaughter

  Willmott + Young

  > WC families moved to the new estate and became more privatised,

  isolated, nuclear. As a result chores were more jointly carried out.
• What did the Rapports find? (MC)

  Greater symmetry was found in dual earner families
• How do Phal + Phal criticise the Rapports?

  Managing directors' wives were expected to accommodate their lives around their husband's schedule of work & leisure.

  Wives did housework in exchange for a higher standard of living.
• Unemployment of men

  > Involvement of housework varies by social class

  > They don't do housework because it threatens their masculinity, along with being unemployed
• Women's paid employment

  > If wives worked, men participated far less on housework

  > Female doctors get little help at home
• Edgell

  > Wived dominate domestic decision making

  > Husbands dominate big financial decisions
• Hunt- control of money


  > Meals were prepared by the wife on the basis of the ones the husband liked
• Phal - Control of money


  Distribution of family wage depended on the husband/wife power relationship
• DeVault Feeding The Family - Emotion Work

  > In depth study on 30 women

  > Variety of backgrounds

  > Found that a huge amounts of invisible work goes on in the home

  > Women find it difficult to relax during meal time

  > Women are stressed because they need to ensure people are filling in

  the gaps when silence occurs
• Mansfield & Collard - Emotion work

  Study of 60 newly weds

  > men and women have different emotional needs

  > wives wanted closer emotional intimacy

  > after the emotional experience of childbirth they spent less time at home, doing less emotion work
• Criticisms of studies in this area

  > Out of date by 30 to 40 years

  > Control of money may vary by social class because more women earn

  > Difficult to define 'emotion work'

  > Assumes women are passive

  > Men may not admit to emotion work, threatens their masculinity
• Women and domestic abuse - Statistics

  > 2 Women are killed each week by a current or former partner

  > 1/4 Women experience domestic abuse in their lifetime
• Children and domestic abuse - Statistics

  > In 90% of domestic violence incidents, children were in the same room
• Dobash and Dobash - Radical Feminists

  Violence against women is the result of the patriarchal family; husband authority.

  Wife beating is the extension of their control
• Ansley

  Domestic abuse is the result of capitalism. Men are frustrated with their social position, women absorb the anger of the proletariat.

  Women are takers of shit.
• New Right opinion on domestic abuse

  It is the result of a decline in moral standards and family values.