Power and Control in the Family-Sociology

Power and Control in the Family-Sociology

  • Submitted By: sarah113
  • Date Submitted: 01/16/2014 12:48 PM
  • Category: Psychology
  • Words: 2185
  • Page: 9
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Power and control in the family

(a) Explanation of the phrase 'domestic division of labour'

This phrase describes the sharing of responsibilities over domestic duties and tasks. Husband and wife share the tasks in the household and divide them between each other.
In the past developped a great tendency to a traditional, gender divided and unequal domestic division of labour, which means that the women are full-time housewives and responsible for housework and childcare, while the men are more free in how they spend their free time after work.

(b) Two reasons for the trend towards egalitarian marriage

One reason, why the egalitarian marriage got more frequent in the last years, is the fact that in comparision to the time of industrialization, payments got more equal.
During industrialization, women got paid less than men and consequently, women were keener on staying home and do without their salary, so that the men could go to work and earn the money. Increasingly, the burden of earning the money gets shared equally between husband and wife.

Another reason for the trend towards egalitarian marriage, is that men spent more free time at home than several years ago and the domestic tasks get shared equally between the married couple, because the women spent more time working outside of the house now. During industrialization, most men went to the pub after work and spent the evening with male colleagues while the wives were at home.
By taking part in domestic labour, men help modern women not to suffer under a dual burden of profession and household duties. The equal sharing of household and childcare duties makes the parent's marriage a more egalitarian one.

(c) Three ways in which men's role as parents may have changed in recent years

Firstly, men started to share childcare tasks equally with women in recent years.
Since women began to go to work too, men have become much more involved in domestic tasks and they help women in taking part...

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