Firstly, whether a family live in a symmetrical family or not will have an effect on the divisions of labour. March of Progress theorists (Liberal Feminists) such as Young and Willmott argue that family life is gradually improving for all its members, becoming more equal and democratic. For example, women now go out to work, just as men now help with housework and childcare. However Radical Feminists reject the ‘March of Progress’ theory, and argue that women remain unequal within the family. Anne Oakley argues that we still live in a patriarchal (male dominated) society, and therefore women occupy a subordinate and dependant role within the family and wider society.
For example, women now go out to work, just as men now help with housework and childcare. However Feminists reject the ‘March of Progress’ theory, and argue that women remain unequal within the family. Anne Oakley argues that we still live in a patriarchal (male dominated) society, and therefore women occupy a subordinate and dependant role within the family and wider society. In addition in Mary Boulton’s research backed this, she found that fewer than 20% of husbands had a majority role in childcare. Overall it could therefore be argued that rather than partners becoming more equal, women now have to carry a ‘dual burden’, whereby she is responsible for two jobs of unpaid or paid labour.
For example, women now go out to work and become wage earners, just as men now help with housework and childcare. However Feminists reject this theory, and argue that women remain unequal within the family. Anne Oakley argues that we still live in a patriarchal (male dominated) society, and that children are being taught from an early age that the traditional roles are the norm. She also rejects Parsons Theory of saying that it is controlled by biology she believes it is controlled by society. Overall it could therefore be
Functionalists like Fletcher believed that divorce was rising because people were raising their expectations in marriage, this suggests that higher divorce rates means higher value of marriage. Women petition for 70% of divorces this shows that the women may be increasingly likely to feel dissatisfied with marriage. The unequal distribution of tasks may be a key factor for example Delphy and Leonard suggest that the woman already performed 57 unpaid roles for their partner. This places a great deal of pressure on the wife leading them to believe that divorce is the key to lift this burden off their shoulders. Couples also had fewer children which again may mean that there is less to keep them together leading to an increase in
Raising that wage could mean a raise for millions of workers. Childcare support shows that a lack of access or ability to afford childcare can be one of the most significant barriers to getting a job and staying in it. But if government fully funded childcare programs, mother’s overall employment would increase. By getting women to brave discrimination and socialization to take these jobs, and getting these employers to reach out to women, and getting more men into low-pay service jobs, and getting women the training and education they need for male-heavy jobs should all be a pretty easy to accomplish. Works Cited 50 Years After the Equal Pay Act, The Gender Gap Persists: http://www.npr.org/2013/06/10/189280329/50-years-after-the-equal-pay-act-gender-wage-gap-endures 10 Things You Didn’t Know about the Gender Gap: http://healthland.time.com/2013/11/11/ten-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-gender-gap/ Freakonomics: Women are not Men: Gender Gap Program on NPR: http://www.wnyc.org/story/301155-freakonomics-radio-women-are-not-men/ The Man Box: Tony Porter: A Call to Men, video on men and masculinity: http://www.ted.com/talks/tony_porter_a_call_to_men.html
The common perception of marriage is that it was originally weighted heavily in favour of the male member of the couple, and that this has shifted slowly to a more even-handed arrangement in recent years. This essay will examine the question of how accurate this belief really is. Historically, marriage was highly unequal. While the husband took the role of breadwinner and went out to earn the necessary money to support the family, his wife was expected to stay at home and look after the more mundane tasks that make up the day-to-day running of a household. As the former role was commonly seen as more valuable than the latter, this often meant that the husband held most of the power, such as deciding where they would live, how resources were distributed, etc.
Women were not as desirable as men to merchants and planters who were rising and marketing tobacco, which entailed countless hours of manual and hard labor. “The gradual improvement in the sex ratio among servants toward the end of the century may have been the result of a change in recruiting the needed labor. In the late1600’s,the supply of young men willing to emigrate stopped increasing sufficiently to meet the labor demands of a growing Chesapeake population (Carr & Walsh, The Planter’s Wife, 545).” Merchants who recruited servants for planters turned to other sources, and among these sources were women. They weren’t first in line to the ships arriving in the Chesapeake, but the female numbers did
The status and role of the elderly in the future will increase because the birthrate has dropped to an all-time low. b. There will be an elderly revolution, termed the “silver-haired rebellion,” which will place much of the lost power and status back into the hands of the older segment of society. c. As the rate of technological change accelerates, knowledge quickly becomes obsolete, and this decreases the status and role of the elderly (they are no longer the storage houses of technological knowledge; libraries and databanks have taken over this role). d. In the future, there will be a major reorganization of kinship and the family, which will restore power to the elderly.
The Depression hit women, like other minority groups in American society, similarly harsh because of that payrolls of many communities and private companies were open only to males. The main role of women during the Great Depression was that of the homemaker. Some women had gone through college level education and, like their male counterparts, were having a difficult time of finding employment. Those with families had the task of keeping their family together, as the traditional view of motherhood role, when the principle moneymaker of the family was out of work. However, some women joined the work force and would do jobs that men previously had held.
The various explanations offered for the rise of married women’s paid employment still leave room for the impact of cataclysmic and unique events, such as World War II. Possible roles for the World War II can be found on both the supply and demand sides of the market. Women were drawn into the war-time economy through a variety of mechanisms. For some, increased wages, in general and specifically for women were the main factor. A husband’s absence meant a wife had less to do at home, and patriotic duty was reason enough for others to join the war