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