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Couples and Power relationshipsThe domestic division of labour

This topic includes…• The domestic division of labour• The impact of paid work on domestic roles• Resources and decision-making in households• Domestic violence

Do you want a job?•50 – 100 hours a week

•Few holidays•Less job satisfaction than assembly line work

•Job security threatened by divorce•Unpaid

•Involves sharing a bed with your employer

What do we already know?

What do you think the following have to say about male/female roles within the family.• Functionalists• New Right• Feminists• Marxists

The domestic division of labour• The roles that men

and women play in relation to housework, childcare and paid work

Sociologists Key Concepts

Parsons Expressive role

Instrumental role

Bott Segregated conjugal roleJoint conjugal role

Young and Wilmott March of Progress

Symmetrical family

Egalitarian

Oakley The rise of the housewife role

The value of domestic labour

• In 2004, a report called ‘the value of a mum’(The Legal and General insurance firm) estimated a domestic labour figure.

• £21,840 per year• £407.39 per week

It appears that housework is a relatively modern invention. In pre-industrial times, household tasks were not clearly distinguished from more general economic tasks, such as working on the farm, tending to the animals, bakingand the variousactivities of cottageindustries(Pahl, 1948).

During the Industrial Revolution, men became increasingly identified with the public world of production and wage labour, while women were confined to the private sphere of consumption and the home.

Talcott Parsons (1955)

The husband has an instrumental role!

The women has an expressive role!

In the traditional nuclear family…

• Instrumental role• To achieve success

at work.• To provide financial

support for family. • ‘Breadwinner’

• Expressive role• Primary socialisation of

the children.• Meeting the family’s

emotional needs.• ‘Home-maker’

Parsons argues that this division of labour is based on biological differences, with women ‘naturally’ suited to the nurturing role. He claims that the division of labour is beneficial to both men and women.

What benefits do you think Parsons imagines with this view?

Can you think of any criticisms of this approach?

Elizabeth Bott (1957)

Segregated conjugal roles – where the couple have separate roles: a male breadwinner and a female homemaker/carer (as in Parsons’ roles). Their leisure activities also tend to be separate.

Joint conjugal roles – where the couple share tasks such as housework and childcare and spend their leisure time together.

Wilmott and Young• See family life as gradually

improving for all its members – March of Progress View

• Symmetrical family – the roles of husbands and wives, are now much more similar (women work, men help with housework, couples spend leisure time together).

• Studied families in London and found the symmetrical family was more common amongst younger couples, those who are geographically or socially isolated, and the more affluent.

Reasons for the rise in the symmetrical family;• Changes in woman’s position in

society• More women working• Geographical mobility (living

away from communities you grow up in)

• New technology and labour saving devices

• Higher standards of living

Evaluation – their research methods were criticized. Vague questions and unrepresentative sample.

The feminist view - Oakley• Rejects ‘March of Progress

view’.• Men and women remain

unequal within the family and women do most of the housework.

• The fact that men are seen as ‘helping’ women more does not prove symmetry. It shows that the responsibility of housework is still the woman’s.

• Even though more women work, the housewife role is still the women’s primary role

Research findings• 15% of husbands had a

high level of participation in housework

• 25% high level in childcare (but only in the more pleasurable aspects)

• Men take on the more pleasurable household tasks

Other research to support Oakley’s findings• Warde – sex-typing of domestic

tasks is still strong. Women are 30 times more likely to do the washing and men 4 times more likely to wash the car.

• Office for National statistics – women spend on average 2.5 hours a day on housework. Men spend 1 hour.

• Boulton – only 20% of husbands have a major role in childcare

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTjk98hrPzU

The impact of paid work on domestic roles

Now that many women work, has this had an impact on the domestic division of labour?

Sociologist Concept

Gershuny

Silver and Schor Commercialisation of housework

Ferri and Smith Duel Burden

Marsden Emotion work/Triple shift

Women working = more equality in the homeGershuny found the following;• wives who work full time

do less housework• Couples who's parents

had more equal relationships were more likely to share housework

• The longer a women has been in paid work, the more housework her husband is likely to do.

Silver and Schor argue that the burden of housework on women has decreased. This is because housework has become ‘commercialised’ and women now have the money to spend on goods that help with housework.

What things can you think of that reduce the amount of domestic labour needed to be done.

Women working = less equality in the home• Ferri and Smith –

women have a duel burden, responsible for paid work and unpaid housework.

• Marsden – women are expected not only to do a double shift of both housework and paid work, but also to work a triple shift that includes emotion work. -

Summary• There is some evidence that a woman being in paid work leads

to more equality, however many feminist argue that the effect of this is limited: women still continue to shoulder a duel or triple burden.

Resources and decision-making in households• Who makes most of the decisions in your household?• Who controls the finances and decides how it is spent?

• Task – read the pages from the textbook. Highlight the key studies and findings and answer the 3 questions.

Domestic Violence

Activity• What do you think are common ‘triggers’ to domestic

violence?• Suggest reasons why many battered wives or husbands remain

with their violent partner.• In what ways other than physical violence may someone be

able to dominate their partner?

Domestic violence does not occur randomly but follows particular social patterns.• Most victims are women• 99% of all incidences against women are committed by men• Nearly one in 4 women have been assaulted by a partner at

some time in their life, and one in 8 repeatedly so

Official statistics and domestic violence

Understate the true extent of the problem for two main reasons;1. Victims may be

unwilling to report it to the police

2. Police and prosecutors may be reluctant to record, investigate or prosecute cases.

Yearshire found that on average a woman suffers 35 assaults before making a report.

Cheal found that state agencies (like police) are reluctant to get involved in the family because they assume that the family is private, good and individuals are free to leave if they wish.

The radical feminist explanation• Dobash and Dobash –

domestic violence is evidence of patriarchy. Men dominate women through domestic violence• Domestic violence is

part of a patriarchal system and helps to maintain men’s power

Evaluation• Not all men are

aggressive• How about female

violence against men and children?• http://www.youtube.

com/watch?v=ZlWQrxVFJ7M&feature=player_embedded

Activity• Read back through all the information in this topic and

separate the different sociologists, their concepts and studies into two arguments

Roles in the family are becoming or are more equal

Roles are not equal

Task

Asses sociological explanations for inequalities between husbands and wives. (24)Create and essay plan for the above question.

Things to look at;Resources and decision-making in householdsDomestic violenceDomestic division of labour