Page 399 - Essencials of Sociology

372 CHAPTER 12 Marriage and Family

The Conflict Perspective: Struggles between
Husbands and Wives

Anyone who has been married or who has seen a marriage from the inside knows that—
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Activity: Domestic Life: despite a couple’s best intentions—conflict is a part of marriage. Conflict inevitably arises
A Battle of the Sexes? between two people who live intimately and who share most everything in life—from
their goals and checkbooks to their bedroom and children. At some point,
their desires and approaches to life clash, sometimes mildly, at other times
FIGURE 12.1 Who Makes the quite harshly. Conflict among married people is so common that it is the grist
Decisions at Home? of soap operas, movies, songs, and novels.
Power is the source of much conflict in marriage. Who has it? And who
Wife makes resents not having it? Throughout history, husbands have had more power,
more decisions and wives have resented it. In the United States, as I’m sure you know, wives
have gained more and more power in marriage. Do you think that one day,
26% Husband makes
more decisions wives will have more power than their husbands?
43% You probably are saying that such a day will never come. But maybe
wives have already reached this point. From time to time, you’ve seen
31% Couples divide some surprising things in this book. Now look at Figure 12.1. Based on
decisions equally
a national sample, this figure shows who makes decisions concerning the
family’s finances and purchases, what to do on the weekends, and even
Note: Based on a nationally representative sample, with what to watch on television. As you can see, wives now have more control
questions on who chooses weekend activities, buys
things for the home, decides what to watch on televi- over the family purse and make more of these decisions than do their hus-
sion, and manages household finances. bands. These findings are such a surprise that we await confirmation by
Source: Morin and Cohn 2008. future studies.
The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective: Gender,
Housework, and Child Care

Changes in Traditional Gender Orientations. This chapter’s opening vignette
gave you a glimpse into extreme gender roles. Apart from the specifics mentioned
there, throughout the generations, housework and child care have been regarded as
“women’s work.” As times changed and women put in more hours
at paid work, men gradually did more housework and took more
responsibility for the care of their children. Ever so slowly, cul-
tural ideas shifted, with housework, care of children, and paid
labor coming to be regarded as the responsibilities of both men
and women. Let’s examine this shift.
Paid Work and Housework. Figure 12.2 on the next page
illustrates significant changes that have taken place in U.S.
In Hindu marriages, families. The first is startling—how wives have traded house-
the roles of husband work for paid work. They have cut down the amount of
and wife are firmly time they spend doing housework by 14.5 hours a week,
established. Neither
this woman, whom while they have increased the time they spend at paid
I photographed in work by 14.9 hours a week. From this figure, you can
Chittoor, India, nor see that husbands have done just the opposite. They have
her husband question increased the time they spend on housework and child care,
whether she should while they have dropped their paid work hours slightly.
carry the family wash to
the village pump. Women From Figure 12.2, you can see that the total hours husbands
here have done this task for and wives spend on housework have dropped by 9.4 hours a week.
millennia. As India industrializes, That is a lot less housework. Does this mean that today’s homes
as happened in the West, who are dirtier and messier than those of the past? This is one possibil-
does the wash will be questioned— ity. But it is likely that the explanation lies in changed technol-
and may eventually become a
source of strain in marriage. ogy (Bianchi et al. 2006). Our microwaves, dishwashers, washing
machines, clothes dryers, and wrinkle-free clothing save hours of
drudgery. The “McDonaldization” we discussed in Chapter 5,
which has led to so many “fast-food” meals, also reduces the time