Outline and evaluate the view that relationships between men and women in the family have become more equal PDF

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Essay - Outline and evaluate the view that relationships between men and women in the family have become more equal...

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Ellie Smith

Outline and evaluate the view that relationships between men and women in the family have become more equal (33 marks) The equality debate has been opened since the 1970s and there are many different views on the matter. Functionalists see gender roles as inevitable as women are naturally suited to the mother/caring role, which Parsons terms the ‘expressive role’. Liberal feminists believe that women have made real progress in terms of equality within the family and particularly in education and the economy. They also believe that men are adapting to change even though they culturally lag behind women in terms of attitudes and behaviour; the future is likely to bring a move towards domestic and economic equality. Marxist feminists argue that housewife roles serve the needs of capitalism by maintaining the present workforce and reproducing future labour-power. Radical feminists such as Delphy (1984) believe that ‘the first oppression is the oppression of women by men - women are an exploited class’. They believe the housewife role is created by patriarchy and made to serve men and their interests. In 1973 Young and Willmott asked married couples aged 30 to 49 ‘Do you/your husband help at least once a week with any household job like washing up, making beds, helping with the children, ironing cooking or cleaning?’, they found that 77% of men helped with domestic work and childcare and so claimed that the traditional segregated division of labour in the home was breaking down, that relationships between husband and wife a conjugal relationship was becoming more symmetrical in middle class families, this meant there was more sharing of domestic work and leisure activities. Criticisms of this study is that by asking ‘at least once a week’ it could just mean the husband only helped once a week, so isn’t very accurate. In 1974 Ann Oakley argued that Young and Willmott’s study suggesting the increasing symmetry between husband and wife roles in the family is based on inadequate methodology. Their conclusions were based on one interview question, which was worded in a way which could exaggerate the amount of housework done by husbands. She questioned 40 women aged 20 to 30 who lived in London and has one or more children under the age of 5. She found that only 15% of husbands helped with housework to a substantial degree and only 30% with childcare. She found that middle class men participated more in both areas than working class men; however this was vastly outweighed by the 77 hours of domestic work women did a week. This study done by Ann Oakley could be criticised as the sample was very small so the results could not be generalised, it was also only done on women so therefore could be very biased thus questioning its validity. Furthermore 77 hours of domestic work a week seems a big exaggerated. However she did look at different social class backgrounds in her research to see if there was any differences making it a representative sample. The 1992 British Social Attitudes Survey found more sharing of child rearing than household tasks, this could be due to child rearing being more fun than household tasks, although there was some movement towards a more egalitarian division of labour over time. This

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used a good sample size so is representative and the results can be generalised. It was also done in 1992 and therefore is up to date, as well as it being high in validity from asking the same question to husbands and wives. In 1983 Mary Boulton found that in over 80% of families she studied, wives took the main responsibility for looking after children. They took time off of work when their child was ill and felt guilty if they did not. Women felt they had to put their child’s needs before anything else, however men rarely made these sacrifices. She believed that this burden of responsibility was more crucial than housework tasks and the hour’s men and women both spent on tasks. In this piece of research Boulton gives an interesting insight into an unusual aspect of household division of labour; the burden of when children are ill. However it doesn’t give a sample size or how she studied the families so therefore we cannot make generalisations. Ferri and Smith in 1996 conducted a survey of everyone born in Britain in a particular week in 1958. According to male respondents in dual earner families of full time workers, 2% of men were the main careers of the children compared to 24% of women and 74% of the families shared the caring equally. However according to female respondents they were the main career in 32% of families, and their husband in 1%. Although when men were unemployed and women were employed, it was more common for women to take the main responsibility for childcare. In this piece of research the sample size was very large and therefore means the results are representative and can be generalised to the wider population. It is also high in validity as both partners were asked the same question but came out with slightly different results, so an average can gain a fairly valid representation. Liberal feminists would argue that even though women still do more childcare, that men are gradually doing more, this is called lagged adaptation. In 1992 Gershuny found that husbands of working wives still did less than half of the work done by their wives. Which means women were experiencing the dual burden, this is the burden of both paid and unpaid work such as housework. However Gershuny also found out that men made more effort to do housework when their wives were in paid work. The found was quantitative so therefore he could find patterns and trends easily, he also differentiated between women in paid work and not in paid work, and furthermore he repeated his study again in 1999 so improves validity and reliability. Functionalists would argue that the sexual division of labour is biologically inevitable and therefore this is why women to housework and childcare and men are the breadwinners in the family. Like Ann Oakley, in the 1980s Edgell found little sharing of household tasks. He also found that a lot of important decisions such as moving house or buying a car as well as financial decisions were made by the men and women made small decisions such as domestic issues, spending on children’s clothes and interior design. However his sample size was small (38 couples) and they were all middle class families so the results couldn’t be generalised. In later research by Pahl he found out about working class families. Wife control was most

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common in poorer families where managing the budget was more of a burden, however just over ¼ of couples in her study the money management was fairly equal and then 60% of families where the man was in control of money or had more say, this would usually be because he is the main breadwinner. Pahl’s research was on a small scale however it was repeated again so thus is high in reliability. She also acknowledges the difference between social class groups so it is fairly representative. In 1995 Duncombe and Marsden identify an invisible element of women’s domestic work, which is the emotional support they provide for the whole family. Women feel their male partner’s lack in ‘emotional participation’ which is expressing feelings, such as relating emotionally to children. This then increases the burden on women to please everyone, they then neglect their own psychological wellbeing, which then in turn has negative consequences to mental and physical health. Women expressed dissatisfaction with their partner for not engaging emotionally, most men did not realise that emotional work was needed to make the relationship work. Bernard’s research supports this as in his study men were more satisfied than women with marriage. Women expressed their emotional loneliness and moreover the men had no idea that their wives were unhappy. In the 1970s Dobash and Dobash studied domestic violence and found it was underreported, and stress that women who experienced it were not hopeless or helpless, may were actively seeking help and held positive views about themselves. This was a small study but is backed up by statistics, however men are also victims of domestic violence, and this is just even more underreported. Sclater notes that some behaviour, such as punching and kicking is easily recognisable as domestic violence however behaviours such as treats, verbal abuse, psychological manipulation and sexual intimidation are less easy to recognise by some men and women as domestic violence. Stanko’s survey found that one incident of domestic violence is reported by women to the police every minute in the UK, although it is still underreported so it is a very big issue within family equalities of men and women. Feminists suggest that domestic violence is a problem of patriarchy, Marxists feminists then go on to say that women are doubly exploited by men and the ruling class, they believe women provide support for the husband and absorb all of his problems and frustrations he gets from work, this can then result in domestic violence. Overall there is still inequality in the family due to women taking the main role over housework and childcare, thus making them experience the dual burden and triple shift effect, which is paid work, housework/childcare and emotional support combined. However there is also evidence to suggest the ‘new man’, this is the slow move from men doing no housework or childcare in the home to progressively doing more, although it is a slow process, and is called lagged adaptation. Men are slowly adapting to a world where women no longer want to stay at home and be housewives, but some men still see doing housework as un-masculine and threatening to their role as the breadwinner....