couples
domestic division of labour
instrumental role - husbands, breadwinner, achieving success at work, providing for the family
expressive role - wives, homemaker, primary socialisation of the children, meeting the emotional needs
parsons
argues that this division is based on biological differences, with woman 'naturally' suited to the nurturing role
symmetrical family
young and willmott
'march of progress view' = family life is gradually improving, becoming equal and democratic
symmetrical family = the idea that husbands and wives now have joint conjugal roles
A03 feminists, reject this view as they argue that little has changed, women still do most of the housework
A02 women now go out to work, men now help with housework and childcare
oakley - claims are exaggerated
A02 on average men do 8 hours of housework a week, whereas women did 13 hours
are couples becoming more equal?
taking responsibility for children
boulton = usually mothers taking responsibility for the children's security and well-being
A02 even though 78% of fathers played with their children, when it came to caring for their sick children only 1% of fathers took the main responsibility
hochschild = emotion work + triple shift
women are responsible for managing emotions and feelings of family members
triple shift - women perform housework, paid work and emotion work
taking responsibility for 'quality time'
mothers organising the family's quality time together
southerton = men are more likely to experience 'blocks' of uninterrupted leisure time whereas women's leisure time is often punctuated by childcare
women are carrying a dual burden
decision making and resources
the financial support that husbands give to their wives is often unpredictable and comes with 'strings' attached
money management
pahl + vogler
identify 2 types of control over income
allowance system = where men give their wives an allowance out of which they have to budget
pooling = where both parents have access to income and joint responsibility for expenditure
decision making
pahl + vogler = found that even where the was pooling, men usually made the major financial decisions
men's job normally took priority when deciding whether to move house for a new job - possibly because they are more likely to earn more
A03 70% of couples said they had an equal say in decisions
personal life perspective on money
focusing on the meanings couples give to who controls the money
A02 same sex couples attached no importance to who controlled the money - they did not see the control of money as meaning either equality or inequality
smart
greater freedom among same sex couples - because they do not enter relationships with the same 'historical, gendered, heterosexual baggage of meanings around money'
domestic violence
is far too widespread
around 2 million reported to having been victims of domestic abuse during the previous year
does not occur randomly
similar patterns - mainly violence against women
women are more likely to experience 'intimate violence'
statistics
yearnshire = on average a woman suffers 35 assaults before making a report
ansara = women suffer more severe violence snd control with more psychological effects
radical feminist explanation
family + marriage are key institutions in patriarchal society
abused woman are often financially dependant on their partners making them more unable to leave
men dominate women through violence
most domestic violence by men to preserve their power over women
male domination of state institutions explains reluctance of police to deal with reports
A03 fails to explain violence by women, not all men are aggressive
materialist explanation
focusing on economic and material factors such as inequalities in income and housing to explain why some groups are more at risk
those in low income households are more likely to experience stress - reducing chances of maintaining stable and so increasing conflicts
wilkinson + pickett
A03 fails to explain why women are more likely to suffer than men