Couples

Created by: tillyredfern
Created on: 15-05-20 21:38

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Couples
- The domestic division of labour
  - Parsons: Instrumental role - husband/breadwinner, expressive - wife/homemaker
    - EVALUATION
      - feminists: reject the view that the division of labour is natural. only benefits men
      - Young and Willmott: men are taking a greater share of domestic tasks & more wives are wage earners
    - based on biological differences, women 'naturally' suited for nurturing
    - New Right thinkers agree with this view
  - Bott: joint and segregated conjugal roles.
    - Segregated conjugal role: male breadwinner female homemaker
    - Joint conjugal role: shared tasks
  - Young and Willmott (MOP) - symmetrical family
    - caused by changes in women's positions, geog mobility, new tech (labour saving), higher standards of living
    - roles are much more similar: women go to work, men help w housework and childcare, couples spend leisure time together
    - EVALUATION
      - Oakley: only 15% of husbands had a lot of participation with housework, and only 25% in childcare
      - most feminists say it's a huge exaggeration
- Becoming more equal?
  - March of progress view
    - Gershuny: women working full time leads to a more equal division in the home
      - EVALUATION
        Hochschild: triple shift - have to deal with emotion work, a job and housework - still not equal
    - Sullivan: looked at national data from 1975, 1987 and 1997-showed an increase in number of couples w an equal division of labour
      - EVALUATION
        Could be right answerism - felt guilty that they weren't doing enough
  - Explaining the gender division
    - Cultural explanation
      - Gershuny: couples whose parents had a more equal relationship shared housework equally themselves
      - Kan: younger men do more domestic work (more than their father)
      - Dunne: lesbians had more symmetrical relationships bc of no gender roles
    - Material explanation
      - Ramos: where the woman is the full time breadwinner and man unemployed, they do the same amount of housework
      - Sullivan: working full time rather than half makes biggest diff in terms of how much labour each partner does
- Resources and decision making
  - Money management
    - Pahl and Vogler: allowance system and pooling
  - Decision making
    - Pahl and Vogler: even where there was pooling, men made big financial decision
    - Hardill: study of 30 dual-career professional couples: big decisions made by man alone or jointly
      - his career took priority when deciding whether to move house for a new job
      - Supports Finch: women's lives tend to be structured around husband's careers
  - A 'personal life' perspective on money
    - Weeks: gay couples pooled some money for house and had separate accounts for personal spending
      - value of co-independence - each partner retains control over some money & keeps independence
- Domestic violence
  - Dobash and Dobash: violence set off by a challenge to the man's authority, e.g. asking why he was late home
  - Ansara and Hindin: women suffered more severe violence with worse psych effects. Women much more likely to be fearful of their partner
  - Official statistics
    - Yearnshire: avg a woman suffers 35 assaults before making a report.
    - Police may be reluctant to look into DV cases
      - Cheal: reluctance is bc police aren't prepared to become involved in the family.
        they make 3 assumptions: the family is a private sphere, the family is a good thing, the woman is free to leave
  - The radical feminist explanation
    - Millett and Firestone: all societies have been founded on patriarchy.
    - widespread DV is inevitable feature of patriarchal society and serves to preserve the power of men
    - EVALUATION
      - Elliot: not all men are aggressive and most are opposed to DV
      - fail to explain female violence e.g. child abuse, violence against male partners and within lesbian couples
Domestic violence
- Dobash and Dobash: violence set off by a challenge to the man's authority, e.g. asking why he was late home
- Ansara and Hindin: women suffered more severe violence with worse psych effects. Women much more likely to be fearful of their partner
- Official statistics
  - Yearnshire: avg a woman suffers 35 assaults before making a report.
  - Police may be reluctant to look into DV cases
    - Cheal: reluctance is bc police aren't prepared to become involved in the family.
      - they make 3 assumptions: the family is a private sphere, the family is a good thing, the woman is free to leave
- The radical feminist explanation
  - Millett and Firestone: all societies have been founded on patriarchy.
  - widespread DV is inevitable feature of patriarchal society and serves to preserve the power of men
  - EVALUATION
    - Elliot: not all men are aggressive and most are opposed to DV
    - fail to explain female violence e.g. child abuse, violence against male partners and within lesbian couples

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Couples

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