Introduction to Sociology: Families

 

We shall examine two approaches to understanding how work is divided between men and women. Then we will discuss how the state shapes the family through various policies and strategies.

 

A paradox

There is a paradox facing women. On the one hand, in the public sphere, there has been significant improvements, including the feminisation of labour force, advances made by women’s movements, state welfare provisions to single and working mothers, greater sexual equality between men and women in political life and better financial independence of women.

On the other hand, in the private sphere, there have been no changes, and the division of labour within the domestic sphere remains unaltered. For instance, women are responsible for the primary care of children; they nurture vulnerable adults (the sick, the elderly and the disabled); they perform domestic services for able-bodied men; and the domestic maintenance of the family life is under the supervision of women.

 

Approaches to Division of Labour

There are two main approaches to understanding how work is divided up between men and women within the family and the society.

a) Naturalistic / Functionalist Approach

- Emile Durkheim

Durkheim argues, ‘Men are almost entirely the product of society, and women are to a greater extent the product of nature.’

This is interpreted to mean that women’s labour largely focuses on the domestic life. Their activities are natural and biological; the distinction between work and non-work is difficult as many activities are ‘natural’ and not really labour (e.g., cuddling a baby, caring for an elderly parent). Women’s activities are more emotional, create social bonds, and make a difference at the personal level. Women’s work largely takes place in the private sphere, where care and empathy are valued.

In contrast, men’s labour occurs in the productive and economic sphere. Their activities are not natural but acquired, so that their work has a political, social and historical qualities, generating social and gender inequalities and unevenness (men’s work is socially constructed). Men’s labour is regulated by reason, progress and scientific management. Their work largely takes place in the public sphere, where rational calculation and productivity are much valued and rewarded.

In this approach, the division of labour within the family provides stable and functional outcomes that benefit everyone at home and in society. Sexual, social and economic activities occur without much conflict and tension.

 

 

 

b) Political / Exploitative Approach

- Delphy & Leonard and Jane Wheelock

This approach argues that women combine two kinds of labour: a) productive labour involving wage-earning activities; and b) re-productive labour referring to un-waged work, such as care of children and dependent adults. Women continuously cross the public/private divide. Women’s position in the family is explained by patriarchal relationships, as an outcome of male power, in which men exploit women as workers.

Strangely, this explanation of men’s control over women reduces the process of family work to the effects of biological differences between male’s innate desire to control and female lack of physical power. It is an essentialist (and a biological) claim that there is something  about ‘maleness’ that drives men to want to dominate, control and to have power. However, not all men are committed to this and resist any expectation upon them to dominate. Furthermore, there are variations to the standard male/female power relationship reflecting class, ethnic, sexual and age differences.

The problem with the above approaches is that they are unable to account adequately for variations in gendered division of labour. Variations in the domestic sphere suggest that:

i) mothering and caring are essential, but not inevitably women’s work only;

ii) there is a moral underpinning of responsibilities associated with being a ‘good’ father, mother or parent, irrespective of any male/female power relationship; and

iii) gendered work encompasses issues of cultural and religious values (e.g., fundamentalism and liberalism), sexual identities, political rights and power to men and women, and individual attitudes toward home & work and parenting.

 

State-Family Relationship

The welfare state concerns itself within the private realm of family lives. The state does this through various ways:

a) social policy – distribution of resources to families; e.g., the national health service, child welfare payments, social security benefits and public housing;

b) taxation and expenditure – distribution of resources to different industrial sectors; e.g., income tax to boost the retail sector (which employs more women than men) and subsidies to defence and agricultural sectors (which is dominated by male employment);

c) labour legislation – equal opportunity and community programmes affect women’s mobility between waged and unwaged labour;

d) state educational and nursery provisions affect women’s opportunities and costs for reproductive and productive work; and

e) family legislation defines and enforces obligations and rights within the family.