Term
KEY THEORISTS: YOUNG AND WILMOTT (1950s)
Conjugal roles and the domestic division of labour clearly segregated |
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Definition
• men = primary wage earners and were responsible for few domestic tasks around the home, rare for father to attend birth of his child, regarded themselves as head of the household
• women = few worked outside the home, economically dependent on their husband, responsible for all aspects of housework and childcare |
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Term
| YOUNG AND WILMOTT'S FOLLOW UP RESEARCH IN 1970s |
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Definition
| Radical change = trend towards joint conjugal roles and egalitarian marriage relationships |
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Term
YOUNG AND WILMOTT
Change in nature of conjugal roles and distribution of power in the family cause by 4 major social changes during 50s and 60s: |
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Definition
1. Slum clearance programmes: relocated many w/c families go council estates. Isolation from extended kin meant that couples were forced to rely on each other for social support and companionship
2. Greater education and job opportunities = large no. of w/c people experiencing geographical mobility (also caused isolation from extended kin)
3. Women started going out to work in greater numbers and making economic contribution to standard of living of their family (could buy labour-save devices such as vacuum cleaners)
4. Women acquired more power (over own fertility, economically, no longer dependent) therefore out more pressure on men to do more at home |
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Term
YOUNG AND WILMOTT
CONCLUDED THESE CHANGES HAD RESULTED IN A NEW FAMILY FORM: |
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Definition
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Term
| FEMINIST RESPONSE TO YOUNG AND WILMOTT'S RESEARCH IN 1970s |
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Definition
Ann Oakley 'Housework' (1974):
• Y&W are exaggerated - only 15% husbands had a high level of participation in housework, 25% in childcare
GERSHUNY (1994): women who didn't work did 83% of housework and wives who worked full-time- 73%!
DUNNE (1999): same-sex study of cohabiting lesbians
• more likely to describe family as equal |
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Term
DECISION-MAKING IN FAMILIES
Y&W: families shared decision making |
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Definition
| VOGLER AND PAHL (2001): Decision making was shaped by income. Found only 1/5 of households were egalitarian decision-making units. Most decision-making was done by men because they earned the higher incomes |
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Term
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Definition
Duncombe and Marsden (1995): women = emotional labour, paid labour and domestic labour = women work a 'triple shift'!
This can lead to the neglect of the woman's emotional wellbeing, and can negatively affect their mental/physical health |
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Term
EXPLANATIONS FOR INEQUALITIES IN DOMESTIC LABOUR AND POWER
1. Biology |
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Definition
Functionalists: domestic division of labour is brought about primarily by biological differences between the sexes.
PARSONS: women are naturally suited to the caring of the young because they physically bear children |
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Term
EXPLANATIONS FOR INEQUALITIES IN DOMESTIC LABOUR AND POWER
2. Familial and patriarchal ideology |
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Definition
| Feminists and postmodernists: Leonard (2000) patriarchal ideology underpins dominant ideas about both laid work and domestic labour and suggests that men resist change because the persistence of an unequal division of labour suits them |
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Term
EXPLANATIONS FOR INEQUALITIES IN DOMESTIC LABOUR AND POWER
3. The ideology of motherhood and fatherhood |
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Definition
Chambers: ideology of motherhood centres around the idea of putting children's needs first
(BSA Survey, 2012: 30% believes that preschool children suffer if their mother works)
• therefore: large numbers of women feel guilty about working full time, some give up work altogether
Miller (2010): ideology of fatherhood - breadwinner, head of the household, unemotional disciplinarian. Absent father are negative |
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Term
EXPLANATIONS FOR INEQUALITIES IN DOMESTIC LABOUR AND POWER
4. Gender socialisation of children |
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Definition
Shaped by familial ideology
Van Egmond et al (2010): gender identity of children is firmly in place by the age of 8, consequently have a clear idea of which jobs in the home belong to which sex |
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Term
EXPLANATIONS FOR INEQUALITIES IN DOMESTIC LABOUR AND POWER
5. Social policy |
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Definition
| Williams (2004): state policy encourages female economic dependence on men and therefore inequalities in domestic labour and power (e.g. Expense of childcare in the UK) |
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Term
EXPLANATIONS FOR INEQUALITIES IN DOMESTIC LABOUR AND POWER
6. Relative resources theory |
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Definition
Main cause of gender inequality in the home is economic.
Men have comparative economic advantage over women in terms of labour market characteristics and therefore human capital
E.g. Access to greater range of jobs, higher pay, don't have their careers interrupted by children
-> superior bargaining power in the home and therefore dominate decision making and opt out of sharing domestic labour and childcare
PAHL AND VOGLER: pooling -> leads to most gender equality
compared to giving 'allowance' |
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Term
EXPLANATIONS FOR INEQUALITIES IN DOMESTIC LABOUR AND POWER
7. Marxist Feminism |
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Definition
• domestic labour performed by women serves the needs of capitalism (maintains the workforce and reproduces future labour power)
- Cox and Federici (2010): under capitalism, women have assumed the role of breeders, housewives and consumers |
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Term
EXPLANATIONS FOR INEQUALITIES IN DOMESTIC LABOUR AND POWER
8. Radical feminism |
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Definition
Delphy (1984): housewife role is created by patriarchy and is geared to the service of men and their interests
• DV often used by men to threaten, control and punish women who complain about their exploitation in the home |
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Term
| CRITICISMS OF FEMINIST THEORIES |
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Definition
• fail to explain why women's roles vary across different cultures (e.g. The mother/housewife role doesn't exist in all societies)
• Hakim (1996): feminists underestimate women's ability to make rational choices (some women choose to give more commitment to family and children, therefore less commitment to work)
- women feel they have two main choices in life: the 'employment career' or the 'marriage career'
- therefore, feminism may be guilty of devaluing the role of mother/housewife as 'second-class' |
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