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Couples are not more equal today - Coggle Diagram
Couples are not more equal today
Cultural vs material explanations
Crompton and Lyonette:
cultural explanation = view that the division of labour is determined by patriarchal norms & values that shape gender roles; socialisation
material explanation = fact women earn less than men means it is economically rational for women to do more of the housework & childcare
Cultural explaination
Jonathan Gershuny:
couples whose parents are more equal will be more equal
Man Yee Kan:
generational shift; younger men do more domestic work
British Social Attitudes Survey (2013):
under 35s less in favour of traditional division of labour
Dunne:
lesbian couples had more symmetrical relationships due to lack of traditional gender scripts
Material explaination
Man Yee Kan:
for every 10K per year a woman earns she does 2 hours less of housework per week
Arber and Ginn:
middle class women benefit from the commercialisation of housework e.g. nannies
Xavier Ramos:
if the women is a full time breadwinner, and the man is unemployed, housework is equal
Oriel Sullivan:
working full time makes the biggest difference in achieving equal housework
Rosemary Crompton:
little prospect of equal division of labour if its dependent on economic / pay equality
Cultural vs material explanations:
Crompton and Lyonette - feminists disagree that inequality is due to differing earning power, its the result of patriarchal culture and ender role socialisation
Carol Smart - money, a 'personal life' perspective same sex couples dont see control of money as meaning either equality or inequality
Weeks et al, money management systems reflect 'co-independence'
The mental load
Definition
- always having to remember things
mental work is women dominated
men tend to believe they are completing domestic tasks fairly even when they are not
men refuse to take on the mental load
women are doing the domestic work but also the manager of it
women forced to take on more tasks, so no choice but to multitask to get them all done
this stereotype of "women can multitask but men can't" make mothers & young girls believe this is how life should be & is fair
Emotional work and quality time
Hochschild:
emotional work, responsible for managing emotions & feelings of family members
Duncombe & Marsden:
triple shift = housework, paid work & emotional work
Charles & Kerr 1988:
women gave priority to their partners & childrens tastes at family meals, despite preparing them
Southerton:
organising quality time is done to mothers
mothers and fathers have similar amounts of leisure time but men have consolidate 'blocks' of uninterrupted leisure time, whereas womens often punctuated by childcare
women more likely to multitask
Radical feminists
Delphy:
the first oppression is the oppression of women by men
Marxist feminists
the housewife role serves the needs of capitalism in that it maintains and reproduces future labour power
dual burden benefits capitalism as women are double exploited at work & home, reproduce the labour force, warm bath theory
unpaid labour in the home is worth a trillion dollars
Taking responsibility for childcare
Ferri 1996:
findings suggest not much has changed since Oakleys research
dual burden / dual shift, majority of domestic duties after being at work
no significant help from male partners
fathers took responsibility in childcare in fewer than 4% of families
McMahon 1999:
points out men may offer help with domestic tasks, but women still largely responsible for them
female tasks tend to be urgent and monotonous such as cooking & cleaning
Dex and Ward 2007:
fathers had quite high levels of involvement with their 3yos (78% played with them)
only 1% took the main responsibility when caring for a sick child
Braun et al 2011:
only 3/70 families had the father as the main career
most are 'background fathers' and had a 'provider ideology' underpinned by 'intensive mothering'
British social attitudes survey (2013)
Domestic division of labour in 2012:
housework: men 8%, women 56%
care: men 8%, women 36%
60% of women felt they were doing more than their fair share of labour
women more likely to care for sick family, whereas men more likely to do small repairs around the house
men tend to overestimate, women underestimate
Feminism and gender roles
Ann Oakley:
feminists reject the march of progress view, they argue women are still unequal; stems from patriarchy
she criticises Young and Willmott's symmetrical family, she argues their claims are exaggerated
men may have 'helped' their wives at least once a week but that could just be making breakfast once
Boulton:
although fathers may help perform specific childcare tasks, it is usually the mother that takes responsibility of the child's security & well-being
ultimate responsibility on mother
Warde and Hetherington:
found men would only carry out routine 'female' tasks when their partner wasn't around to do them
but, younger men have a slight change of attitude and no longer assume women should do the work & more likely to think they're doing less than their fair share