The Patriarchal Power Structure Of Households Essay

The differences between gender roles are not so apparent anymore. Men are not always the typical breadwinners and many women are not stay-at-home mothers. An article by Beaupré, Dryburgh, and Wendy (2010) described the transition that many men are going through. According to Beaupré, et al., (2010), fathers were once considered the forgotten parent. “Until recently studies on the family focused mainly on the mothers” (Beaupré, et al., 2010). Fortunately, both parents are now being focused on. Fathers today are much more involved in the pregnancy and birth of their child and their child’s life in general (Beaupré, et al., 2010). Beaupré, et al., (2010) explained that women’s involvement in the labour force could be a factor to this change. Women are more educated than they were in previous years. And while women want to work more, men want to be more involved in their children’s lives (Beaupré, et al., 2010). Fatherhood is occurring later in adulthood. Research stated that the majority of men are very satisfied with their involvement in their children’s lives. (Beaupré, et al., 2010).

Since women’s acceptance in the labour market the typical Australian family being ‘male breadwinner’ have been replaced by ‘dual income’ families where one partner works full-time while the other works part-time (Chesters 2011). As a result, there was an adjustment in the division of domestic labour where it became more equal as couples divide their time between paid and unpaid work (Chesters 2013). According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS 2009) gender roles in housework became more flexible whilst women participate in paid employment. Men would spend more time doing ‘core female’ domestic activities such as cooking and laundry and less time on outdoor activities such as home maintenance and lawn mowing (ABS 2009). In addition, men take on a greater role with regard to childcare where they spend more of their care time on play activities, these activities are normally done the same time as other activities (ABS 2009). However, some research has found that the ‘more dependent husbands are on their wives for income the less housework’ they would do in order to protect their masculinity (Baxter, Hewitt & Western 2009). Although there is hardly any difference in time spend on household work between full-time and part-time employed men it is is evident unemployed men spend only between 4 and 5 hours more doing housework as

As this essay has shown so far, there is inequality in who does what in the home but there is also inequality in decision-making; in deciding who gets what and how the family resources are shared out between them. Barrett and McIntosh note that mean usually make the most important decisions, the financial support from men is often unpredictable and they usually gain more from women’s domestic labour than they give back in return. Feminist sociologists Pahl and Vogler suggest that because of men’s higher earnings women have more financial dependence on their husbands and this is why men take more control over major decisions. Edgell agrees with this view and states that women only exert some control on less important decisions such as home décor. Finch argues that wives’ lives are generally structured around the husbands’, such as if the husband had to move for work, the wives would pick up and go with them, whereas it is unlikely that the husband would follow their wife for work.

Women for years have been automatically given the role of the domestic housewife, where their only job is to cook, clean, and take care of the children. Men have usually taken the primary responsibility for economic support and contact with the rest of society, while women have traditionally taken the role of providing love, nurturing, emotional support, and maintenance of the home. However, in today’s society women over the age of sixteen work outside of the home, and there are more single parent households that are headed by women than at any other time in the history of the United States (Thompson 301.)

Fathers today spend more time taking care of their children compared to previous generations. Even with these gains, today's mothers devote almost double the time that fathers do for child care.[2] While every situation is different, in most families there

Women are generally responsible for caregiving (children and elders), volunteer activities, domestic duties, and social reproduction at an average rate of 2:1 (50 hours per week) compared with men (25 hours per week), regardless of how much paid work they are committed to (Milan, Keown, & Urquijo, 2015). Men are freer to pursue paid opportunities (and investments in human capital) and women are restricted by unpaid obligations, which perpetuates inequity. Some solutions to gain equity include social welfare reform programs, universal/affordable dependents’ care programs, and the shift of unpaid duties to men, as sociologist Nancy Fraser (1997) theorizes in After the Family Wage: A Postindustrial Thought

Foremost, the familial image has undertaken significant changes in regards to the ‘breadwinner’ and ‘homemaker’ roles within the family. In the latter of the 20th century, women’s participation in the labour force had been very little to non-existent, primarily because time allocations had been perceived as gender specific, that is, men were seen as the ‘breadwinner’, while women were viewed as the ‘homemaker’ (Seltzer, Bachrach, Bianchi, Bledsoe, Casper, Chase-Lansdale, Diprete, Hotz, Morgan, Sanders, & Thomas, 2005, pp.20). The ‘breadwinner’ role was to secure financial stability, while the

The first reason stay at home fathers are becoming more common is due to the transformation of gender roles and more specifically breaking the breadwinner norm that men have traditionally been known for. The breadwinner notion defines a man’s identity, with a man’s work wage used to determine if they are deemed a successful father or a failing father

The survey found that it was still very rare for fathers to take primary responsibility for childcare in dual-earner families, no-earner families or families where only the woman worked, showing again inequality in conjugal roles. Therefore Ferri and Smiths findings disagree with the statement, showing inequality in conjugal roles. Many women agree with Ferri and Smith that it is they rather than their

As a result of the increase of pregnancy rates in the 1950s there was a decrease of employment. Instead of going to work, mothers cared for their children at homes. This reinforced the roles of women as wives and mothers. Today, women are now more liberated from these roles. That being the case Author Natalie Angier, of the article, “The Changing American Family, explains, 62 percent of the public, and 72 percent of adults under 30, view the ideal marriage as one in which husband and wife both work and share child care and household duties…” This quote demonstrates that majority of women are no longer the housemakers of the family. The twenty-first century women are through with stereo gender jobs and proved to be a family's breadwinner. In the 1950s, Author Brigid Schulte, of the article, “Unlike in the 1950s, there is no ‘typical’ U.S. family today,” points out, “....in the 1950s, 65 percent of all children under 15 were being raised in traditional breadwinner-homemaker families. Today, only 22 percent are.” This quote supports the belief that both husbands and wives should share the responsibilities of supporting their families with financial income and responsibilities in the

In addition, in the traditional families the mother usually bore the sole responsibility of the child caring. Modern parents now share this responsibility together because of social and work constraints. However, holidays which are not common in the traditional family, allow them to spend quality time with their children. Moreover in many modern families the father becomes a house worker, to provide for the needs of his children. As the statistics shown in the United Kingdom in 2001, 155 000 fathers were stay home husbands. All in all, the emphasis on nurturing children can be seen in traditional and modern families, alike.

My beliefs and view on the gender ideology towards work and family is more weighed on one side (Masculine) and partly on the other (Feminine). It is evident that the ‘Masculine’ gender is more dominant in our society and because of this; there is more expectation and responsibility for the masculine gender. However, there is a continual inclusion trend in which we are witnessing the feminine gender assume some roles of the masculine gender. But overall, the masculine effect is still dominant. I personally feel that there should be a good balance of work and family responsibility by the men. It is necessary that the ‘Men’ are mostly responsible for taking the role of the breadwinner of the family therefore, the working hours of the men would have to be met as required by the employer. For example, working 40 hours a week is the minimum in the US but varies in some other places. In a case whereby the man has to take an overtime shift just to meet the needs of the family.

Conventionally, females played a very insignificant role in the paid work force of a society as many times they were expected to be home taking care of their family. Their roles at home can often include grocery shopping, meeting all the needs of her children and husband. As time moved on, our society became more accepted of sharing housework between the couples, but even so, the traditionally more feminine housework such as cooking, caring for sick children, and shopping for the entire family are mostly done by the females of the house. It is argued in a research journal Work and Occupations (Witkowski & Leicht, 1995) that in an average North American family, females take on roughly three-quarters of the housework. Even though we are in a democratic society, parenting roles in the household are assigned based on gender rather than in a democratic fashion (Winslow-Bowe, 2009). Because of the many responsibilities and obligations that are associated with the female gender, their career paths are eventually affected for the worse. According to Statistics Canada (2001), for every dollar a man earns, a single woman earns 93 cents and a married woman earns 69 cents. These statistics

The purpose of this paper is to explore patriarchal values that reinforce violence towards women in intimate partner relationships. This paper argues that patriarchy and the social construction of masculinity reproduce male violence against women. The following sub-issues that that will be discussed are patriarchy, capitalism, the religion of Islam, and the construction of masculinity and femininity. All the sub-issues encompass patriarchy values which allows inmate partner violence.

Sociological study on the gendered division of labour within the domestic sphere has perennially been characterised by evidence of a clear inequality concerning the allocation of unpaid chores within the home between men and women (Warren, 2003:734). While men have traditionally been regarded as primary breadwinners, the management of home-maintenance has remained largely women’s responsibility (Breen & Cooke, 2005:47). A number of theories exist to explain this unequal distribution of domestic labour, in particular the economic exchange model (which argues that women perform domestic duties in ‘exchange’ for financial support from their husbands), and the gender display model, which asserts that household labour is divided on the basis of