In relation to my hypothesis this shows that there is an inequality between men and women and the domestic and work sphere are just a couple of many unequal issues. It has been socially recognised and there are people that work against it.
My third concept is Triple shift this is a term used by Duncombe and Marsden. They analysed the roles within the family, and found that the ‘biggest part of the emotional work in families is done unpaid, by women. As well as women’s emotional participation to the family. Having completed their paid employment, they return home to do most of the housework as well as most of the emotional work. This concept can be linked to my hypothesis because it is sociological proof that not only do women do more work than men but they do work at different levels paid work, housework and emotional work.
Contexts
My first context is a study by Young and Willmott who proposed that there have been four stages of family life. The third stage is ‘The symmetrical family’. This type of family evolved in the early 1970s.This family is largely home centred. In the home they share their work and their time. They use the term symmetrical family to refer to the way men and women are equal. Although, the wives still have the main responsibility for raising children and cleaning the house. However the husband and wife share many of the chores, they share decisions. Yet there is still the opportunity for both husband and wife to work. This theoretical assumption is of relevance to my hypothesis because it contradicts my hypothesis. It tries to show that there is equal division of labour in the home and criticises my hypothesis.
However a study that supports my hypothesis but criticises Young and Willmotts symmetrical family is by Ann Oakley. She discusses the daily demands that are meet by women domestically and how it affects a women’s ability to function fully in the work sphere.
Oakley asked:
- How does work in the home differ from other kinds of work?
- What role do these differences play in the experiences of housework?
Oakley pointed out that:
- Housework does not consist of a set range of tasks Housework has historically been defined as 'women's work' - others may assist her or help out, but it remains 'her work'.
- Housework has become combined with the roles of wife & mother
- Housework is also seen as low status and socially devalued work
- The domestic sphere is considered a pleasurable place, therefore activities that take place in the home, including housework are often seen as a form of leisure.
Oakley's examination of unpaid work in the home indicates that there are multiple and conflicting meanings given to housework. Housework is
- Women’s work
- Is tedious, repetitive work that is relatively unskilled and unstimulating.
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Is an act of care that demonstrates love and affection for other members of the household.
These observations have supported my hypothesis because it shows that women do the majority of housework and that it is expected of them. It clearly shows that women do more domestic work than men, even if they are employed.
Main method
The theoretical stance I have adopted is Marxist Feminist. This theoretical stance was more suited to my hypothesis than the phenomologist approach The phenomenological approach focuses more on the meanings behind our actions and uses unstructured interviews and observation. Observation is when one studies the participants actions. This would not work for me, as it would be very difficult to gain access to, to families as this would not only be an inconvenience to them but also make them feel awkward and invalidate my results. Marxist-feminists adopt a positivistic approach and they use positivistic methods, which are scientific and generally structured. However because there is an element of Feminism in my view I am going to use a semi-structured interview. A semi-structured interview has a selection of open and closed questions. This is to enable the respondents to answer in depth without straying off the topic of discussion.
This method will be more advantageous to me because interviewers can explain the purpose of the research therefore the ethical issue of keeping information from participants is overcome. Also questions can be clarified as opposed to a postal questionnaire where misunderstanding with questions cannot be explained.
In order to overcome the problem of the interviewer having preconceived ideas I will carry out a pilot interview. This is a small-scale version of the full interview, which is intended:
- To help evaluate the usefulness of the larger interview
- To test the quality and accuracy of the questions
- To find out if there are any foreseen problems
- To identify any leading questions that may influence the answers of participants
After doing this I will select 10 married couples in a dual income family. I will have one female interviewer to interview female participants and a male interviewer for the male participants. The purpose of this is to avoid interviewer bias.
The reason I chose to use a semi-structured interview is so that participants are given the opportunity to express their opinions at length. Also I will be able to direct the way in which I want the conversation to go by occasionally asking questions to guide the respondent, in order to ensure I get the results needed to operationalise my hypothesis. A semi structured interview is the most appropriate as I can elaborate on certain areas that I think will be of use to me.
Potential problems
My selection process could be a problem because not many people are willing to give out personal information about what happens in their life as it may cause problems in the home. So I will make it voluntary.
The cost of the interviewers will be another problem because they are sometimes expensive so I have reduced them to two. It will also be time consuming because I will have to adjust my interview times over a certain amount of days because my participants work. If my theoretical assumption is correct it will be difficult for the women to be interviewed properly as they have many tasks to carry out at home. So to solve this problem I will have time slots so that the participants are able to chose the times that suit them.
I have avoided ethical issues by informing my participants about the full purpose of this interview and then by making it voluntary so I am not adding any pressure or responsibilities to the participants.
