Family and Households - Couples

Parsons' functional fit model of the Family is shown through the Expressive and Instrumental roles. The father takes on the expressive role and the mother takes on the instrumental role.

[blank_start]Expressive[blank_end] roles are those taken on by the mother, which involves care and nurturing of the family members like children. Instrumental roles are those taken on by the [blank_start]father[blank_end], which involves being the breadwinner and [blank_start]financial[blank_end] provider for the family.

Elisabeth Bott added to Parsons' functional fit theory. What did she say?

Young and Willmott argued the presence of the Symmetrical Family. Young and Willmott are March of Progress sociologists.

The symmetrical family is a concept developed by [blank_start]Young[blank_end] and [blank_start]Willmott[blank_end] which describes how the family shares domestic tasks, childcare and paid employment. They tend to find this amongst younger couples.

F[blank_start]erri[blank_end] and S[blank_start]mith[blank_end] found that [blank_start]4[blank_end]% of observed fathers took the primary responsibility for children.

Reay argues that although dads do complete childcare tasks, the mother takes responsibility for their safety and security.

[blank_start]Dex[blank_end] and Ward argued that women had the [blank_start]most[blank_end] involvement in childcare tasks and fathers rarely took care if sick children.

Who argued that women performed the Triple Shift?

Women perform the triple shift according to Duncombe and Mardsen. What does this mean?

[blank_start]Southerton[blank_end] argues that achieving quality time is becoming more difficult due to working patterns 's varying and women must [blank_start]juggle[blank_end] the family's activities as well as their own. This means that women must punctuate their leisure time around the fathers, whereas the father can plan their own leisure time.

Pahl and Vogler identified two types of systems to control family income. These can be identified as the Pooling and Allowance systems.

'Laurie and Gershuny found that 70% of couples said that they had an equal say in decision-making. Women who were in high earning, qualified professionals were more likely to have an equal say'. This is a point against the oppression of women.

The '[blank_start]personal life[blank_end]' perspective on money focuses on the meanings couples give to who controls the money.

[blank_start]Smart[blank_end] found that some [blank_start]same[blank_end]-sex couples attached no importance to who controlled the money and are happy to leave it to their partners. This leads to greater freedom for same-sex couples because they don't enter relationships with the [blank_start]historical[blank_end], gendered meanings around money.

Weeks et al found a pattern for pooling in households but have separate accounts for personal spending.

Domestic violence is considered to be the behaviour of psychologically disturbed individuals, however, in recent years this theory has been challenged. Give two reasons for this shift in thought on reasons for domestic violence.

Coleman found that [blank_start]1/3[blank_end] female homicide victims are murdered by a partner/former partner.

Joe Mama argued that violent incidents could be set off by what a husband saw as a challenge to his authority, such as his wife asking why he was late home for dinner.

C[blank_start]heal[blank_end] argued that the [blank_start]police[blank_end] are not prepared to become involved in the [blank_start]family[blank_end] due to their reluctance to record it and investigate.