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POWER AND CONTROL IN THE FAMILY - Coggle Diagram
POWER AND CONTROL IN THE FAMILY
housework and childcare
segregated division of labour
a traditional sexual division of labour in which women take responsibility for housework and mothering, and men take responsibility for being the breadwinner and head of the household
parsons - expressive and insrumental leaders
feminists disagree and argue not biological but a social construct
young and willmott claimed this was breaking down in the home
young and willmott
claimed the relationship between husband and wife was becoming symmetrical and moving towards an egalitarian marriage. 72% of household men contributed to the housework
this led to a decline in the extended family and instead moved to the 'privatised nuclear family'
thoughts that a 'new man' had appeared during the 1980s - males were in touch with their feminine side and were happy to meet women's emotional and domestic needs. men no longer saw their role in the family as the breadwinner and saw alternative roles for themselves in the family
note that many researchers fail to acknowledge the substantial roles of women and only focus in the obvious task
many 'tasks' of a women are emotional and emotional therefore are more subtle and tend to be missed by researchers
the view of a 'new man' may not be a valid view of shared division of labour
reasons for rise in symmetrical family
increased employment opportunities for women - duel breadwinners
increasing geographical mobility - severed ties with other relatives and strengthened bonds between husband and wife, had to become more of a team
reduction in numbers of children provides more opportunities to work - more time for women to have different role - children became the centre of the home for both parents, not just women
dual earner families - standards rose - husbands drawn into the family circle
evaluation of young and willmott
oakley argues that their claim of increasing symmetry is based on inadequate research
she argues that their figure of 72% was based on only one question in their interview schedule and therefore men who only make a small contribution to housework would have been included in this
in her own research oakley found greater equality in terms of allocation of domestic tasks between middle class spouses rather than working class
however only in 15% of marriages in both classes did men have high levels of participation
housework and childcare
feminist view - do not feel that the responsibility is shared
dryden - women still had the most responsibility for housework and children - major source of dissatisfaction in marriage
lader - 21 hours for females compared to 12 hours for male who are both in paid employment, still traditional roles being occupised by males and female
dual burden
'wives taking responsibility for the bulk of domestic tasks as well as holding down full time jobs'
sclater - household technologies are advertised to make life easier for women. this increased the burden
raised household standards
increasing time spent on housework
free time
green - found that women saw free time as time away from paid employment and family commitments and men saw theirs as just time outside of work
looking after children
kilkey - working class parents are experiencing 'time famine' with childcare - delegation on childcare to external carers
women also have the emotional wellbeing of their family to look after - duncombe and marsden - wives felt husbands were lacking in 'emotional participation'. this only increased the burden on women
this leads to women neglecting their own emotional well being - experiencing emotional loneliness
decisions, parenthood and social capital
decision making
to have children - generally a mutual decision, but significantly affects females more than males because they have to have to baby, take time off work, lose opportunities
bernardes - effect on careers, only a small number of women return to 'pre-baby' jobs, downward mobility
distribution of power - hardhill - mc wives tend to defer major decision making to husband, concluded that the interests of family should be subordinated to men's career as he was major breadwinner
money management
research shows resources are not shared equally - women often deny their own needs because they are focused on the needs of their family first, on average women are contributing far less financially than the man
vogler - the allowance system: men give wife an allowance of money to spend each month - pooling: both partners have access, joint responsibility for expenditure, often have a joint bank account, not necessarily equal contribution
meaning of money - pooling doesn't necessarily mean there is equality - who controls the pooled money, do they contribute equally
cohabiting couples less likely to pool money - independence but more likely to share domestic tasks equally
nyman - money has no automatic fixed meaning - these meaning can reflect the true nature of the relationship
fathers - new right view: children who are from single parent households are more likely to commit crime and be delinquent
dennis and erdos - children less likely to be socialised with clear discipline and are less likely to be successful parents
peer groups and media have greater influence on these children - delinquency, social disruption, teenage pregnancy, drug and alcohol use ...
fatherhood and the law
according to the government, studies show that following a divorce, just 12% of these children live with their father
children act - mother should have parental responsibility of they are not married
estimated 40% lose touch with children after 2 years
fatherhood and quality
the role of the father is changing, now more likely to be present for birth and have a greater role in childcare
burghes - greater role in emotional development
beck - in postmodern age males cannot get full fulfillment from jobs, need children for a sense of identity and purpose
gray - fathers acknowledge the need to spend quality time with the children - more time to help with homework, play, go on trips
fathers viewed the above as an expression of fatherhood and not domestic work
however - this cannot be exaggerated, the fact is women still have the overwhelming responsibility for child care and socialization because they spend more time with the children as men are more likely to work full time
furthermore, gray points out that fathers are often prevented from spending time with children due to long hours at work and many families decide women will take a back seat in terms of employment to spend more time with the children
motherhood - feminists - participation in jobs is limited by the domestic roles they have to fulfil
few women can have full time careers
some employers believe women are unreliable due to family commitments
not as equal as functionalists would suggest
women are at a disadvantage to men in society by the family situation
social capital approach
time with children has been redefined as 'investing time with children that will benefit them emotionally, educationally and economically'
focus on how parents interpret time spent with children - fathers see spending time alone with children as quality time as they were more likely to do it through choice, rather than obligation
'quality time'
southerton - co-ordinating the families quality time falls to mother
24/7 society
people/families - time is becoming more fragmented - 'pushed for time'
conclusions
may have been a movement towards the symmetrical family - conflicting ideas on how much
some evidence that women being in pad work leads to quality in domestic chores
feminists argue that the extent of the egalitarian relationship is limited - dual burden/trip shift
domestic violence
domestic violence
defined as a pattern of abusive behaviours by one partner against another in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation, it can include:
physical aggression or assaults or threats, sexual abuse
emotional abuse, controlling or dominating
intimidation, stalking
passive/covert abuse
economic deprivation
however, not everyone is aware of the full extent of what domestic violence can involve, therefore as sclater points out many may not recognize certain behaviours as domestic violence
domestic violence in the UK
sociologists see DV as the power of men to control women by physical force
it is estimated to be the most common form of violence in the UK, but as most happens behind closed doors it is extremely hard to measure and document because people don't report it to the police
sociologists challenge - a common view of DV is that it only occurs among a few 'sick' individuals, sociologists have challenged this view:
too widespread - women's aid federation 2014 - DV accounts for 1/4 of all crime
not random - follows social patterns and has social causes - men to women, coleman - women experience intimate violence across all groups, 1/3 of all female homicide victims are killed by a partner or ex partner
statistics
stanko - one incident is reported to the police every minute in the UK
british crime survey 2000 - 70% of DV is men against women - these figures are said to be underestimated because women are reluctant to come forward because: love, blame themselves, not taken seriously, afriad
crime survey 2013 - reported a much narrower gender gap - 7.3% women and 5% men
female violence to men
increase in reports but only at a level of 5% of reported cases
nazroo - wives will live in fear of husbands threats but husbands rarely feel frightened or intimidated by their wives potential violence
difference in how men and women feel in the risk of suffering domestic violence
radical feminists
problem of patriarchy
males justification of attacks is often that women have failed to be 'good' partners. as long as men have capability to commit violence they'll always be inequality in a marriage
gender expectations can be affected if women becomes breadwinner
many males feel the traditional role is for them to be financially responsible for the family leading to a 'crisis of masculinity'
violence may be an outlet of male anxiety and an attempt to re-exert their power in a rapidly changing world
male domination of state institutions helps to explain the reluctance of the police and courts to deal effectively with cases of DV
reluctance to report because of who they have to report to
belief that they won't be believed
fear of standing up in court and the repercussions of that
fear of being alone with men
evaluations
elliot - rejects radical feminists' claim that all men benefit from violence, not all men are violent
fails to explain female violence - child abuse, violence towards men, lesbian relationships
wrongly assume that all women are equally at risk of patriarchal violence ONS 2014 - women from some social groups more at risk, young, wc, low income, alcohol/drugs, illness, disability
materialistic explanation
focuses on economic and material factors being responsible for DV - inequalities in income/housing
wilkinson and pickett - DV is the result of stress in family members caused by social inequality within the relationship and between wider society
social inequality = fewer resources, low income, overcrowded houses
findings show that inequality in chances of experiencing DV - those with less power/status are more at risk
evaluations
positive
useful in showing how social inequality produces stress and triggers conflict
helps to explain the class difference in society
negative
does not explain why women rather than men
marxists feminists could help here, women are the takers of shit, they take on all responsibilities
theoretical explanations of inequalities
functionalists
murdock's definition
traditional nuclear family
universal characteristics
division of labour is biologically inevitable because men and women are different
women are naturally seen as 'expressive leader' - housework, childcare
males are naturally seen as the 'instrumental leader' - breadwinner
ramos
where the women is the full time breadwinner and the man is unemployed - he does just as much housework as she does
liberal feminists
women have made progress in society and family roles have changed from the traditional roles
women now have more equality with men within the family - and also in education and the economy - more women within employment in a fair way, girls outperform boys in school
men are adapting to the change and in the future there is likely to be a further movement towards domestic and economic equality because society is continuing to make steps towards equality
man yee kan - younger men do more domestic work, most claimed to do more housework than there father, most women claim to do less housework than their mothers, generational shift in behavior is occurring
marxist feminists
we live in a capitalist society - exploitation
the housewife role serves the needs of capitalism and benefits men
maintains present workforce insures that everyone has a role to fulfil in society
reproduces future labour power - mothers socialise children at little expense to capitalist society. mothers job is to ensure that her children are prepared for the responsibilities in the workforce
women cannot compete on a level playing field for jobs/promotion if priority is childcare
reinforces to children the gender roles of family through socialisation. they internalise the view that men have no role to fulfil and women have another in society
radical feminists
delphy - women are exploited by men - 'women are an exploited class'
the housewife role created by a patriarchal society and is beneficial to the patriarchal society
the patriarchal family is geared to the service of men and their interests - whole purpose is to ensure that men maintain a position of power in society and this is recreated in the home
sullivan
working full time rather than part time shows the biggest difference in domestic tasks
however women still earn less than men in 7/8 households
crompton - there is no immediate prospect of equal division of labour if it depends on economic equality between the sexes
march of progress view
optimistic view - women working leading to more equality in division of labour
gershuny - full time work - leading to equal division of labour, full time working women did less domestic work than other women - where both partners work full time there was more equality
sullivan - data reviewed in 1975, 1987, 1997 - saw a trend towards women doing a smaller share of the domestic duties. supporting the idea that we are marching towards progress in society
british social attitudes survey 2013 - drop in the number of people who think it's a mans job to be the breadwinner
gershuny - couples whose parents had more equal relationships are more likely to share housework equally - parental role models are important. social values are gradually adapting to women working full time - establishing a new worm that men should do more domestic work
personal loife theoriests - focus on the meaning couples give to the control of money
cannot be taken for granted - it drives inequality in the home
same sex couples - smart - no importance attached
pooling money - weeks - typical patterns, joint account + separate accounts, 'co-independence'
same sex couples have a greater freedom in terms of economic decision making no historical gendered baggage
dunne - lesbian couples had more symmetrical relationships - absence of traditional heterosexual 'gender scripts'
cultural/ideological explanations - division of labour is determined by patriarchal norms and values that shape gender roles in our culture. women perform more domestic labour simply because that is what society expects them to do. belief that the reason that we have difference is because there is a cultural explanation within society that is the norm
material/economic explanation - the fact that women generally earn less than men - economically rational for women to do more housework and childcare