Major Themes in Industrialised Societies: Families

 

We shall provide a critical assessment of two approaches to families: the political economy of households and feminist economic sociology.

 

The Political Economy of Households

- Robert Holton

a) According to this theoretical perspective, if we analyse gender relations in terms of power relations, we are able to identify how women’s position is subordinated by capitalist economic power or patriarchal relations. To link women’s subordination to capitalism opens up economic and social areas where women are discriminated against and are confined to reproduction of labour at the domestic level. However, women’s subordination is pre-capitalism since it occurs in non-capitalist societies as well, such as tribal and semi-feudal communities.

b) It seems that much of women’s subordination may be linked with male desires to control female sexuality, reinforced by physical segregation, male dominance over the household, legal doctrines, sexual violence and women denied a role in public life.

c) There are non-economic dimensions to gender relations, and combining feminist account of power, drawing on patriarchal structures, helps to explain women’s position in society. The combination of feminism and Marxism is a powerful explanation for gender segregation within the labour market and the patriarchal function of households.

However, this political economy framework of Marxist feminism is unable to analyse those features of life where women are involved in mothering, caring for elderly and friendship – these practices cannot be reduced to power and conflict of interest.

d) The political economy approach challenges the division between ‘work’ and ‘home’, and the economy and the household. Often, the distinction is between paid employment and unpaid domestic work, male work and female work, and prestigious and banal work.

However, this perspective reduces the household to an economic production / consumption unit to be analysed along similar lines to capitalism – the discourse of exploitation and surplus value. The household is distinct from work; it possesses a different logic of practice. The household cannot be treated as an economic rational activity, but a place of emotional and interpersonal activity. The household is a place of responsibilities, and care is nurtured not for instrumental purposes but for their own sake. The household is a place of socialisation and moral relations. Of course, this does not mean that the household cannot also be an economic unit (e.g., family businesses), or be economising and cost-conscious (weekly family budget).

 

Feminist Economic Sociology

- Ralph Fevre

a) According to feminist economic sociology, the reason why women entered the labour force in huge numbers was because women began to free themselves from dependent position on husbands and fathers, and faced less discrimination from employers and fellow workers. Women began to resist patriarchal structures and started to enjoy similar rights as men at the workplace.

b) Feminist economic sociology argues that women were held back largely as a consequence of patriarchal domination, and now are slowly breaking free from the home and challenging men at work. In so doing, women have embraced new values, including the economic ethics of contributing to economic production, doing ‘worthwhile’ work and being self-sufficient. The change of morality and psychological outlook has been a means to an end, one of economic success and materialism.

However, there was evidence that women’s priorities were not the same as men’s. But this was dismissed as false consciousness.

c) What emerges in this narrative of changing family-work balance is a de-valuation of mothering / parenting and caring for elderly and other dependents. Both men and women are pursuing similar goals of independence, material possessions, time to themselves, leisure and autonomy.

This pursuit of economic values leads people to spend less time with their families. Employers persuade employees to work longer at work through family-friendly working practices (e.g., child-care facilities).

d) In effect, economic values come to occupy a superior position above all other considerations. The pull of work demonstrates how economic morality dominates men’s and women’s lives. Governments have conspired with employees to reduce the amount of time parents spend with each other and with their children through welfare benefit changes.

e) Domestic work is important, and getting men to share domestic work will not re-valorise it, but a change of government policy might. A ‘social wage’ (wage plus benefits_ would make space for a re-valorisation of the time parents spend with their children. Otherwise, care responsibilities are overlooked.