Topic 1 families couples

• instrumental v expressive

  •Instrumental-male bread winner going to work and paying for the family

  expressive-Primary socialisation of kids and Meeting fams emotional needs (women)

  • Parsons argues division of labour is routed Into biology, men being physically stronger Suits them to instrumental role, women suited to expressive role as they birthed the Child so they have more motherly caring instincts

  •willmort+ young, argue men are now taking on more domestic tasks
• Conjugal roles

  Bott, distinguished 2 types of conjugal roles (within marrige)

  • Segregated, traditional nuclear fam male breadwinner, female home maker, leisure activities seperate

  • Joint Conjugal roles, Couples share tasks eg House work, child care, leisure activities
• Symmetrical families

  Willmott and young, march of progression view, they Studied wc fams in Bethnal green in 1950's, they found that it was traditional but still changing

  • finding women were working more men were doing more around the house and couples had become more privatised
  • this was a result of changes in women’s position, new tech and higher standards of living
• Feminist view of housework

  Oakley criticised march of progress view and argued husband’s interviewed helped once a week which is hardly symmmetrical

  • she argued there’s still some evidence of increased involvement of men and housework
  • she said men like the pleasurable aspects of childcare like playing meaning women miss out on this and have to do housework instead
  • domestic labour is heavily sex typed men do diy and women do cooking and cleaning
• Same sex couples and gender scripts

  Dunne argued the division of labour continues in straight couples due to deeply ingrained gender scripts which don’t seem to exist in same sex couples

  • weeks argues same sex relationships offer more opportunities to negotiate roles
• Explaining gender division of labour

  Crompton and lyonette identify 2 explanations for the unequal division of labour

  • cultural/ideological explanation of inequalit, the division Of labour is determined by patriarchal norms and values that shape the gender roles in our culture, women perform more domestic labour simply because that’s what society’s told them to do and what they’ve been socialised into
• Explaining the gender division of labour p2

  crompton and lyonette

  • material/economic explanation of inequality, women earn less so it’s economically rational that they do more housework than men who spend more of their time earning
• Explaining the gender division of labour- Material explanation

  kan found that for every £1000 a yr more a woman makes she does 2 hrs less housework

  • arber and ginn found better paid mc women were more able to buy in services eg ready meals and nannies
  • ramos found when a woman is the full time breadwinner and the man is unemployed he does just as much housework as she does
• explaining the gender division of labour- money management

  Pal and vogler, looked at how partners contribute to family income, it effects descison making

  • 2 types of control, 1)pooling- joint responsibility for expenditure 2) allowance- husband earns and pays wife an allowance keeps extra for themselves
  • pooling more common in dual earner households
• Explaining the gender division of labour- descision making

  Hardhill, mens careers still take priority

  • edgell ranked descisions in the fam into very important (finances taken by husband), important (relating to kids, holidays etc which is taken by both) and less important (choice of home decor/kids clothes taken by woman)
  • argued it cus men earn more, however fems disagree saying it’s through socialisaction and gender scripts
• Explaining gender divis of labour- plp on money

  nyman suggests money has no automatic, fixed or natural meaning to it and every couple Defines who controls it in a diff way

  • same sex couples often give diff meanings to control of money and researchers say they don’t care who controls it linking to gender scripts
  • weeks found co-independence in couples where there is some sharing but both partners retain control over some money retaining independence
• Domestic violence

  Dobash and dobash reaserch based on police and court records and interviews with women in women’s refuges

  • examples of wives being pushed, beaten, raped or killed by husbands
  • argued marriage legitimises violence by conferring power and authority of husbands and dependency on wives
  • violence set off by what husbands viewed as a challenge to authority
• cultural explanations (m.o.p)

  Gershuny argues women working full time do less housework, the longer they have the job the more work husbands do

  • couples who had parents with equal relationships were more likely to have an equal relationship themselves
  • he explains this in 2 ways: gradual change in society’s values, changes in parental models however he argues with oakley that domestic labour is sex typed
• cultural explanations (m.o.p) p2

  Promotion argues changes in domestic division of labour were connected to economic factors:

  • as women earn more, some men do more work at home but pay isn’t equal as long as there’s unequal pay there will be unequal division of labour
• Dual burden

  Feminists argue there’s little evidence of the ‘new man’ ferri and smith argue women carry a dual burden of paid work and housework

  • morris, even when unemploye, men avoid housework this is argued to be due to them having a crisis of masculinity
• Emotional work, triple shift

  Emotional work is related to the handling one’s own/ others emotions

  • hoschild coined the term although Morgan applied it to families
  • duncome and marshden found that women undertake the majority of this work hence the tripple shift of paid work, housework and emotional work
• Male victims of domestic abuse

  Wallaby and Allen, women are more likely to be a victim of sexual abuse and violence

  • however 1/3 victims of domestic abuse are men but often refuge beds for men are scarce 78 spaces can be used by men but only 33 are dedicated rooms for men
• Official stats

  victims may be unwilling to report domestic violence

  • yearnshire found women suffer 35 assaults before reports
  • police may be reluctant to investigate and prosecute as cheal says they don’t want to get involved in the family, they make 3 assumptions about family life: 1) fams private 2)fams good police may ruin it 3)individuals are free agents so can leave when they experience violence
• Radical feminism

  Miller and Firestone, society’s based on patriarchy, marriage, family are institutions of patriarchy and women’s oppression, men dominate women through domestic violence, male domination of society may explain why courts/ police are reluctant to deal w cases
• material explanations

  Wilkinson and Pickett se domestic violence as a result of stress on family caused by social inequality, those on lower incomes live in over-crowded accomidation so are more likely to experience high levels of stress reducing chances of having stable relationships which increasea risk of conflict and violence

  • worries about money, jobs and housing may spill over into domestic violence tempers
  • lack of money and time restricts ppls social circle and reduces support for those under stress