Roles and Relationships between Partners
Sociologists observed significant changes in conjugal roles so roles of men and woman within marriage over last 50 years
It has been argued that there has been a shift from segregated conjugal roles so where husband and wives performed separate kinds of works and leisure activities
Joint conjugal roles, husbands and wives both perform paid work
More recently they have started to explore other kinds of intimate relationships such as cohabitating couples as they discover how roles are organised in these relationships
Not all sociologists agree that roles and relationships in the family have changed significantly such as feminists have pointed to the extent to which heterosexual relationships are still patriarchal
Perspective on Gender Roles in Family
Functionalism
Talcott parsons, a division of roles between men and woman in families is a functionalist necessary that ensures that each partner specialises
- Expressive role usually performed by mothers is primarily about ensuring that the psychological and emotional needs
- Instrumental role is more suited to men and involves providing income for the family
The husband’s occupation also provides the family with a status in society
Parsons suggest that some extent these roles are based on biology
Points out that woman bear children and nurse them as babies
It is natural that they should also pay a bigger role in their socialisation
Parsons sees humans as products of socialising males and females into different roles simply trains each sex to fulfil the role to which they are naturally suited
Critics point out evidence that gender roles are socially constructed
Questions the idea that men and woman roles in families are biologically determined
Symmetry and the Democratisation of Gender Roles
From 1960s onwards sociologists noted a trend towards the breakdown of segregated conjugal roles and shift towards more joint roles
Young and Willmott (1973) argued that from the late 19th century, new form of family called ‘symmetrical family’ which emerged in higher social class and spreading to working class from 1950s
According to them it has 3 main characteristics
- Conjugal roles are joint, so roles of husband and wives are more symmetrical so both paid workers and unpaid domestic work are shaped
- Family is nuclear family so focus of the family is on the relationship between husband, wife and children and extended family ties are weakened
- Family is privatised so husband and wives spend more time in privacy of their home together rather than other extended family so husbands are more involved in domestic life and more likely to share responsibilities
They conducted the functionalist view that segregated conjugal roles are functional
Implied there has been a historical march towards greater equality in men and woman roles so progresses further in some sections of society than others
Giddens (1992) have argued there has been a transformation of intimate relationship so woman no longer need to accept male dominance
Argues this has led to a democratisation of family life so men becoming more willing to reveal their emotions and engage in an intimate way
Feminism
Questioned Parsons view that segregated roles are functional for both men and woman
Criticised Young and Wilmott arguments that are more equal and symmetrical roles have become more characteristics of nuclear family
Writing in 1970s, Ann Oakley (1974) argued that housewives role remained primary role for married woman which showed in own small-scale study only a minority of men could be classified as having high levels of participation in house work
Ann Oakley found 15% of husbands had high level of participation in housework and 25% in childcare
Feminists also criticised Giddens notion of democratisation, arguing that woman still have main responsibility for family relationships
Radical feminists to the way gender roles are organised in families reflects patriarchal nature of traditional families such as men still exercise more power than woman
Marxist feminists would argue that undertaking unpaid work in the family so woman serve men and capitalism needs
Argue family has a dark side that is ignored by functionalists a idea of symmetrical family
Dark side is domestic violence and child abuse and feminists argue are most commonly committed by men
Feminists also argue that families are patriarchal in more mundane ways such as woman still perform most of the work in most families and men still control finances
Marxism
Fulfilling personal relationships are impossible in a capitalism society due to materialism, consumption and the need for workers to earn a living
Argue that the unpaid labour such as housework and childcare performed by family members benefits capitalism class such as workers are fit to return to work
Cox and Federici argue that under capitalism woman assumed the role of breeders, housewives and consumers of good manufactured by capitalism factories
Postmodernism
Diverse nature of families and relationships n 21st century such as sociologists cannot state that families are either symmetrical or patriarchal
Extent to which family members create their own family practices such as negotiating
Roles and relationships may also change over time
Argue that conventional sociological research focused too much on roles and relationships
Domestic Division of Labour
Feminists has an understanding that works notionally paid but also unpaid
Feminists say work is gendered
Woman increasingly participate in paid employment but often earn less than men
Feminist argued there is a rise in paid employment of woman has not liberated woman
Woman now face dual burden where many cases they are working full time
Survey Research
Considerable quantitative research in recent years that has tried to measure the extent of woman and men part in domestic labour
Estimates of how much work each sex performs vary, most surveys agree woman do more hours of unpaid work
2012 British social attitudes survey suggested that men spend on average 8 hours a week while woman is 13 hours
Criticised as they rely on respondents to surveys accurately reporting how much time they spend on household task
Some studies suggest men tend to over estimate their own participation while woman under estimate
Time Budget Research
More reliable method of estimation involves the time budget dairies, where respondents complete a daily record of how much time they spent on different activities such as Jonathan Gershuny (1999) compared data collected in 1970 and 1997 which found that in 1997 woman still did 60% of domestic work
Woman’s increased participants in paid work over same period, meaning their overall time spent on all work
Gershuny suggested there has been a process of lagged adaption where woman’s roles have changed
Woman entered the workforce in large numbers, but men have been slow to adapt to situation
However, he suggested that in next generation we are likely to see men taking the bigger share so become more symmetrical
Comparing data from 2005 with data from 2000 found that overall both men and woman were less likely to spend time on housework in 2005
May reflect the fact that labour saving devices and convenience foods mean that both sexes need to spend less time on household tasks
Hakim: An Alternative Perspective on Domestic Labour
Catherine Hakim (2010) criticised feminists for constantly complaining that men are not doing their fair share of domestic work
Analysed data from the budget studies across Europe and argued the reality is that men already do more than fair share
Argued we need to add all types of work together in comparing what men and woman do
States on average, men and woman do the same total number of productive work hours so paid and unpaid work which is 8 hours
Men substantially more hours of paid work
Woman’s time is divided more evenly
Analyse by Susan Harkness shows British men work longer hours in total than woman
Couples with no children at home and both full time job encourage
Diversity in Domestic Division of Labour
Studies show traditional and patriarchal ideas or gender scripts may not dominate in households that are not heterosexual
Gillian Dunne study of 37 cohabitating lesbian couples with dependent children found evidence of symmetry in how they organise their domestic division of labour
Found both partners gave equal importance to each others careers and viewed childcare positively
However she did found that one partner did much more paid work than the other, the ime that each partner did much more paid work than others
Other studies discovered social class diveristy
Social Class
Analysis of secondary data by ManYee Kan (2008) suggests middle class woman do less housework than their working class
Suggested every £10’000 increase in woman’s annual income reduces the time, she spends on chores every week by nearly 2 hours and educated woman tend to do less housework
Mainly explained by well off woman who can afford to employ others
Ethnicity
Richard Berthoud’s (2001) study of ethnicity and family life suggest that south Asian families are more likely to adopt more traditional gender roles
High proportion of African-Caribbean families are headed by lone mothers, meaning mothers often combine paid work
Sexuality
Studies of gay and lesbian couples suggest that they are far more likely to have shared roles and responsibilities so consciously rejecting heterosexual norm of traditional nuclear family
Weeks (1999) found same sex couples saw issues such as division of domestic labour as a matter of discussion and negotiation rather than assumptions
Age and Life Course
Divisions of labour vary between generations
Most research suggest younger couples are more likely to adopt more equal roles
Appears couples settle down and have children woman start to take on a greater burden
Emotion Work and Triple Shift – Duncombe and Marsden (1999)
Argued that studying activities such as housework and childcare does not fully measure the contribution made by partners
They suggested that in education to these practical talks, members of households carry out ‘emotion work’
Emotion work refers to people giving love, understanding, praise, reassurance and attention so required to maintain successful relationships
Interviewed 40 established white couples both separately and together and found many women felt it was their emotion work that kept their relationships such as opening up discussion about personal issues
Woman were also frequently dissatisfied with the limited contribution men made in terms of sustaining their relationships
Most men denied there was any problem and felt their contribution to the family say in their paid jobs
Their study suggests that emotion work can be seen as a further dimension to the unequal nature of couples
Feminists argue that in taking up paid employment woman have taken on a dual burden
Suggests that many women end up performing a triple shift
Power in Family Relationships
Functionalists don’t see division of roles in families as based on equalities
Parsons work suggest that men and woman play equal and complimentary roles
Feminists argue that men actually exercise power in most heterosexual family relationships so traditionally gendered roles are major form of social inequality
Woman appear to perform the majority of domestic labour and receive no financial reward and little social status
Decision-Making within Marriage – Hardhill, Green, Dudleston and Owen (1997)
Middle class dual career households in Nottingham
Expected to be relatively egalitarian families both husbands and wives have well paid jobs
Using semi-structured interviews, the authors discovered that 19/30 couples
Tended to make decisions about where couples live and about cars
Both parents usually made joint decisions about buying or renting a house
Hardhill (2002) points that contradiction between the rise of individualism and the need for couples to come to joint decisions are mutual benefits
Argues that in dual career families couples are often both individually pursuing their careers
Only a small-scale and unrepresentative so tends to support feminists’ arguments
However, the existence of a minority of households where there appears to be a degree of equality
Critics argued the fact that woman allow men to progress further in their careers so does not mean men have more power
Catherine Hakim (2004)
Argues that many women work part time due to not being forced by patriarchal power of men
Suggests that based on her own research in Spain and Britain as only 20% of woman are work-centred
Others are equally important
Damaging Relationships
Sociologists show that functional relationships in families can easily slip into damaging relationships
Families are contexts of love and nurturance also contexts of violence and murder = dark side
Families are known as dysfunctional
Crime statistics is a negative picture of family life
3 domestic killing each fortnight on average in UK accounting for 40% of all murders of females
children a week die at the hands of their parents
Baby P affair that hit headlines in 2007-2008 and focused on the killing of 17-month-old
Statistics on domestic violence UK show 4 women have been physically assaulted by a male partner
Betsy Stankos survey of police forces found that one incident is reported to police every minute
Three quarters of all violence of UK is domestic
Family Finances and Money Managements
Power relation in families is now couples manage their finances
Jan Pahl has been researching since the 1980s
Most recent (2005-2008) notes a growing individualisation in couples finances mainly younger couples
Men and woman are likely to have own bank accounts and take responsibility for paying for own things
Represents a shift towards greater equality especially when compared with allowance system
In1989 he found among older working-class couples in one study which involved men controlling finances
Points out individualised finances puts woman at a disadvantage if working part time as men earn more and spending power
if share expenses but woman earn less, men are more likely to have more surplus income, giving greater control
Research suggests woman will only enjoy real equality in relation to financial decisions making