A belief grew that woman belong in their homes. Men tend to be the controller of the family. Woman always put themselves second place to men. They work under the control of men, due to men being stronger, bigger, and more aggressive. Woman are seen to be soft, and therefore are controlled by men.
“The sociology of housework”, (Ann Oakley’s study) compared the work of housewives to car production line workers in factories. Housewives work approximately 72 hours every week, longer than workers in factories. Housewives find their job boring and feel isolated within the home. The amount of physical work is greater than manual workers. The difference is that, women don’t receive any wages/rewards for their work, workers do. This study shows how woman aren’t benefiting and are being controlled.
Dobash and Dobash are radical feminists who argue that, women are oppressed/controlled by men: men are the enemy: “They are the reason why woman are oppressed; they must be abolished. Woman should organise themselves to live independently”. Their study shows patriarchy: this is the power relations which men hold between women. Their study shows men’s power through domestic violence. In a patriarchal society, domestic violence is inevitable feature. Patriarchal society helps to maintain men’s power through violence. 25% of women are abused in Britain. Wife beating is the extension to the husband’s control. Also, the male domination of the state society’s aids to explain the lack of effort of the police/courts to deal effectively with domestic violence’s. Domestic Violence wasn’t treated the same like other crimes before. It’s seems like woman are forced into becoming a housewife. They get trapped inside the home.
Research Methods:
Anonymous closed questionnaires will be used. This is a primary source data. They give straight answers, which are direct and simple. Such questions would be to find out, if they are a housewife/worker, how many hours of domestic tasks do they do in a week, do their husbands help? There can be tick boxes in which they can choose, and most of the questions would be based on the role/jobs they do. I shall make sure that there is a mixture of woman with different ethnic backgrounds. There will be a question asking them about their ethnicity.
Questionnaires produce quantitative data. Quantitative data helps to quantify the results, especially when it’s closed questionnaires. Questionnaires allow comparisons to be made, between different times and societies. They are cheap and quick to produce. Large scale studies can be reached, widely spread geographically; it is representative. Care is taken into sampling procedures therefore it produces a more representative sample. There is no need to recruit interviewers to collect the data, because questionnaires are sent and given back by post.
Questionnaires produce reliable data. If another researcher was to repeat the research, using the same method, similar results should be produced. Woman with the same ethnic background must be questioned.
There will be no problems with any ethical issues. A letter can be sent explaining to them about the survey taking place. Using questionnaires doesn’t cause any harm to the participant/s. This is because the questionnaire I will be carrying out will be anonymous. Also, the respondents consent will be requested, and they shall choose to answer the questions or not. Total confidentiality is taken into consideration. Therefore, questionnaire is ideal for this hypothesis.
Positivists like functionalists and Marxists, use quantitative data like questionnaires. This is a macro theory: society is what creates individuals. Macro theory states that sociology is like science, where social facts are analysed. These factors affect individual’s behaviours. It can easily be measured. Positivists agree that questionnaires are objective (unbiased) and hard core facts which cannot be changed/manipulated. The sociologist’s personal involvement is kept to a minimum. There’s less contact with the researcher, making it a good way of maintaining detachment and objectivity.
The variety of roles woman hold shows the control of men; women are like house slaves. The control of men a big effect to the function of the family.
Potential Problems:
Questionnaires are normally superficial and limited. Most respondents don’t answer all the questions and don’t always have the time to answer these questions. This limits the amount of information gathered. They may find it dull and boring. This will cause them to lose concentration, and will start to answer the questions without giving any thought to it. Some respondents may lie. There are others who may not understand the question, and may guess. This will cause invalidity to the data received. Respondents can be persuaded to answer the questions, by giving them a prize if they do so. However, this causes questionnaires to be more expensive.
Due to lying, forgetting and misunderstanding, it produces invalid data. They don’t give a true picture of what people think/feel. Interpretivists argue that individual’s opinions aren’t taken into account i.e. why exactly people act in certain ways. They argue that questionnaire only give a snap shot of social reality at only one moment. This produces invalid data. It doesn’t count peoples behaviour and attitude changes.
Interpretivists Aaron Cicourel (1968) argues that questionnaires don’t produce a true picture. He says that the method should enable us to feel how it is to be in another persons shoe. Questionnaires don’t do this; it’s the most detached of all of the primary methods.
Also, the response rates of questionnaires low. This is due to the fact that respondents don’t find that these questionnaires are minor, especially if its postal questionnaires. People aren’t bothered to fill in questionnaires and send it. Further more, if sociological terms are used in the questionnaire, people get put off, and do not attempt to answer the question.