introduction of couples :

• Barret and McIntosh 1991


  men gain far more from womens domestic work than they give back in financial support - which is unpredictable and comes with strings attatched.

  men make decisions on important items.

  F-more, Kempson 1994 found that women denied their own needs in order to make ends meet (wc)
• Money management


  Pahl & Vogler 1993 feminists identify 2 types of control over family income

  • allowance system - men give their wives an allowance budget to meet families needs
  • pooling - both partners have access to income, joint responsibility for expenditure eg a joint bank account.
• decision making 


  Vogler 2007 found that men made the financial decisions in pooling.

  Edgells 1980 study of professional couples found tha:

  important decisions taken by husband alone or a joint say

  less important decisions made by wife (food) Edgell says men make the more important decisions as they're more likely to earn more.

  BUT Laurie and Gershuny 2000 - found that by 1995 70% of couples had an equal say in decisions.
• meaning of money


  Nyman 2003 - money has no automatic, fixed or natural meaning, diff couples define it in diff ways, these meanings can reflect the nature of relationship.

  Keeping money seperate does not always mean inequality - Volger et a found that cohabiting couples less likely to pool money to maintain independence.
• plp perspective on money 


  focuses on meanings couples give to who controls meaning

  eg some may not regard their partner controlling money as a sign of inequality

  Carol Smart 2007 - gay ppl attatched no importance on who controlled their money and didn't see it as dictating inequality. - greater freedom for same sex couples as they don;t conform to hetersexual meanings around money.
• domestic abuse


  far too widespread - womens aid federation 2014 found that DV accounts for between 1/6th of all recorded violent crime.

  doesnt occur randomly - mainly violence of men against women

  Coleman et al 2007 found that women more likely to experience partner abuse, family, SA n stalking.

  Coleman n Osborne 2010 - 2 women a week or 1/3 of all female homicide victims are killed by a partner or a former partner.
• Dobash and Dobash - domestic violence


  violent incidents set off by what a husband saw as challenge to his authority such as a wife asking why he was late home for a meal. marriage legitimates violence against women by conferring power on husbands and dependency on wives.
• Crime survey for england and wales

  found a narrow gender gap for Domestic violence in england and wales in 2013

  7.3% of women compared to 5% of men reported having experienced domestic abuse in the previous year
• Significant gender gap in DV

  Walby and Allen 2004

  women more likely to be victims of multiple incidents of abuse n SA

  Ansara and Hindin 2011 - women suffered more severe violence n control w more psych effects. women more likely to be fearful of partners

  Dar 2013 - difficult to count seperate domestic violence incidents as abuse can be continuous, or may occur so often that victim cannot reliably count the instances.
• official statistics


  victims may be unwilling to report to police - Yearnshire 1997 found that on average, a woman suffers 35 assaults before making a report.

  police may be reluctant to investigate - Cheal 1991 bc these agencies not prepared to become involved in family life as family is a private sphere, a good thing, indvs are free, so women can leave - but not rly bc theyre financially dependent on husbands.
• radical fem explanation of divorce

  Millet and Firestone 1970 - argue that all societies have been found on patriarchy,men are the enemy and the key oppressors.

  eval: Elliot 1996 - rejetcs radfem claim that all men benefit from violence against women, not all men are violent etc.

  Crime survery for England n wales found that 18% of men have experienced DV since age of 16.
• materialist explanation of DV


  focuses on economic and material factors such as inequalities

  Wilkinson n Pickett 2010 - dv is a result of stress on family members caused by social inequality

  eval: dont explain why women rather than men are main victims,
• marxist feminists


  see inequality causing domestic violence

  Ansley - women takes of shit, DV product of capitalism, male workers exploited and take their frustration out on their wives.