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.
Edgell says that women do most decision making frequently on a probably daily basis, but their decisions go unnoticed whereas men make fewer decisions more infrequently but they seem to be the more important decisions such as moving house or buying a car or other serious financial decisions. A radical feminist would say that Edgells study just outlines the fact that we are living in a patriarchal society and that men are viewed more highly and have more power and control in the relationship, and that women are just used for everyday menial tasks. In conclusion, there is much to y for both sides of the argument but it is difficult to decide either way. It appears that there is some equality but we have a long way to go before actual
Women carry out the triple burden in the household; the domestic labour, emotional labour, and paid labour. As shown in the item most of this work is ‘unpaid and hardly recognised work at all’. Oakley argues the only way women will gain independence and freedom in society is for the role of the housewife to be removed aswell as the present structure of the family. Wilmott and Young believed the family is symmetrical and that both husband and wife have joint conjugal roles making the family a functional institution and their research showed that men do help women with housework. Radical feminists such as Dobash and Dobash also disagree with Willmott and Young’s theory that the family is symmetrical.
Believing sexism will go away without putting major changes in place, is not a reality. Sexism blatantly exists in the work place. Obvious (and most common) examples of this would be: women are often paid less than their male counterparts for the same position, men often receive rapid job promotions in comparison to women and women are usually the targets of gender based harassment. Women frequently struggle with the lack of pay they receive, in comparison to their male counterparts. A woman working in the same job as a man will usually earn less, despite the fact that she may have the same or better training, education, and skills required for the job ("Study Shows Female Managers in Britain Earn Less than Men, and Equality Could Be 57 Years Away."
but the fact that most of these men are in two-career couples will mute some of the depressing elements of their unemployment”. (Holahan 158). Most men want to work for the satisfaction of being the men of the house. Many feel weaker if their wive’s are earning their income. It’s untraditional for a woman to take care of the family, but these are stereotypes that are being crushed by the feet of women in the workforce in today’s society.
New right thinkers however; believe that these laws undermine the traditional male dominance in families, but many believe these new policies for women and children strengthen the family rather than weaken it. Sociologists such as new right thinkers argue that the Labour party has constructed a ‘nanny state’ which over-intervenes in personal living arrangements. The Labour party have constructed many laws beneficial for women in families as they have realised most families now rely of two
In early American culture it was common for a women’s job to be an obedient housewife in clear contrast to the male’s duty to be a job holder. From the time of birth males and females are beginning to learn their gender roles. Society begins teaching them certain values and creating in them certain behavior patterns acceptable to their social roles. These roles have been in the American society ever since the European colonized in America in 1492. Now-a-days men and women can be seen as having expanded their roles in society, with women entering male roles and men finding new ways to relate to and function in the family house.
In addition, what are the contributions that men and women can made in a relationship. Furthermore, how can those contributions lead to a healthy relationship? The roles of men and women have been defined by society for centuries. A men’s role is to be the sole breadwinner of the family. Women depend on men for protection and financial reasons.
Men are socialised into exploitative relationships in relation to work and they carry this socialisation over into the home and their relationship to women. b. Patriarchy is an ideology (a set of related beliefs about the world - in this instance, male - female relationships) that stems from male attempts to justify the economic exploitation of women. c. The "family system" characteristic of modern societies benefits capitalism (and, by extension, the men who tend to dominate positions of power and influence) because women: - can be forced / socialised into unpaid domestic labour. - can be forced / socialised into responsibility for child-rearing. This benefits the Capitalist because they do not have to pay women to perform this role (the "reproduction of labour power" in society).
High income careers, management careers, political careers and engineering carriers are considered just for men. Home chores are clearly for women. It’s not expected from a man to do jobs like cooking, cleaning the house , care child in home or babysitting jobs although this pattern have been changed a little in recent years due to social and economic changes. Although based on traditional gender roles some fields like nursing are highly feminine this pattern not only change but also this change effects on other fields like gender roles in work area. The number of highly educated women in management, engineering, journalism and social science increased in recent years and this change are changing all former social structure related to gender roles.