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. Factors such as patriarchy and conforming to a gender script will lead to these divisions. Secondly, it could be argued that the money management within a family has an effect on the power relations between couples. Edgell argues that the reason why men are likely to take the decisions is because they earn more; women usually earn less than their husbands, and as a result of being dependant on them, have less say in the decision making. Similarly, Michelle Barrett and Mary McIntosh additionally argue that men usually make the decisions about spending on important items.
The home and workplace before the industrial revolution had been virtually the same; however, both had begun to separate. Male and female spheres had separated along with the separation of home and workplace as well. While the men were gaining their income from their jobs in the public sphere, women, still viewed as the primary care takers for the children, were primarily put into the private or “domestic” sphere. To explain why the separation of men and women in the work force was necessary, the ideology of separate spheres was created; it had defined innate characteristics of women. Women were deemed incapable to work and function in public because these traits were thought to make women less capable to do work that the men did.
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. In theory, the distribution of power in the relationship has shifted due to both the integration of women into the workforce and the emergence of the “new man” who does a fair share of domestic labour. However, this is not necessarily borne out by the evidence. Dryden (1999) studied 17 married couples and found that women still do the vast majority of housework. This could almost be dismissed as a hangover from traditional values or the result of still-prominent stay-at-home mothers, except that it remains true when both members are working full-time, and even in some cases where only the woman is in employment.
EXAMINE THE VIEW THAT DIVISION OF LABOUR BETWEEN COUPLES HAVE BEEN MORE OR LESS EQUAL. [24 MARKS] Domestic division of labour means the gender roles of men and women played in relation to housework, childcare and paid work. For example, men are expected to do more DIY work while women are expected to do the housework and take care of the child by providing emotional support to them. Some sociologists believe that families nowadays are moving towards equality and that the families are becoming symmetrical. A symmetrical family is a family where ale the chores are shared equally between couples.
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.
However, some women joined the work force and would do jobs that men previously had held. Some were not forced to, but they had to work as hard as they could to support their families during this difficult time. In contrast, the writer Norman Cousins commented that there was a negative opinion on the women’s presence in the workforce despite women willing to acquire a living wage. He also stated in his book that the federal government proscribed holding government jobs by both members of a married couple, and many localities stopped hiring women whose husbands with a minimum wage (Cousins 1939). Another aspect of the Depression affecting life of women was the moral argument against working-women.
Some employers, however, rejected women because the jobs were previously assigned to men (Bogan). Women are usually considered as fragile and sensitive so why would they give a masculine job to women? Women also got lower pay because of their gender. According to History.com, “Between 1940
There is much to say about gender roles and relationships and the view that they have become more equal. Item 2B mentions Gershuny who argues that there is a trend towards greater equality and says that there is often greater equality between the husband and wife IF the wife is in full time employment. His study’s identified a period of ‘lagged adaptation’ which is a time gap between the time when a woman starts paid work and t eh time where her husband increases his domestic activity. Devine would agree with Gershuny in the idea that we are moving towards greater equality but she identifies the fact that even though men are supposedly helping more, it is not enough and domestic labour is still seen as primarily the women’s responsibility.
If it is a result of implicit discrimination due to lifestyle choices, then women's lower earnings result from the fact that women typically take more time off when having children or choose to work fewer hours. If it is explicit discrimination, then the pay gap is a result of stereotypical beliefs, conscious or unconscious, from those who hire and set salaries.This graph depicts the female to male earnings ratio, median yearly earnings among full time. Some other examples of the gender gap are: Women who work part time actually earn more than men who work part
The reasons for this decrease are due to a change in social norms and a decline in social stigma. It is now socially acceptable to not get married, and lots of individuals choose to concentrate on other aspects of their life such as their career rather than marriage. Woman especially are treated very differently than they were in the 1950s. They now have access to higher education and careers and are not expected to be housewives. In 2004 the UK average ratio of men and woman at university was 51:49 which shows that nearly just as many woman choose to go on to higher education as men.