Gender Roles, Domestic Labour and Power Relationships – Topic Overview

Families and Households Topic 4 – Changes within the family

Gender Roles, Domestic Labour and Power Relationships

Overview of the topic and sub-topics

In this topic we look at the extent to which relationships between men and women have become more equal, focussing on the following three areas:

4.1. To what extent are gender roles characterised by equality?

4.2. To what extent is the Domestic Division of Labour characterised by equality?

4.3. Issues of Power and Control in Relationships

4.4. To what extent has women going into paid work resulted in greater equality within relationships?

Key Concepts

• Conjugal roles

• Segregated conjugal roles

• Joint conjugal roles

• Instrumental roles

• Expressive roles

• The symmetrical family

• The ‘march of progress view’

• The Domestic Division of Labour

• The ‘New Man’

• Dual burden

• Domestic Violence

• Intenstive Mothering

• Superdads

• Gender norms

• Liberal Feminism

• The commercialization of housework

• Emotion work

• Gender scripts

• Triple shift

Selected Short Answer Questions

• Suggest three ways in which families are becoming more ‘symmetrical’

• Suggest three reasons why families may be becoming ‘more symmetrical’

• Outline three pieces of evidence that criticize the view that the family is becoming more symmetrical

• Suggest two reasons why a gendered division of labour still exists between some couples

• Suggest three ways in women going into paid work has influenced domestic relationships

• Suggest three ways in which men may still have more power than women in domestic relationships

• Suggest three reasons why official statistics on domestic violence may be inaccurate

• Suggest three reasons why domestic violence occurs

Possible Essay Questions

• Examine the factors affecting power relations between couples (24)

• Assess the view that modern relationships are becoming more symmetrical (24)