Analyse whether women and men retain

In this assignment I will analyse whether in today's society women and men retain their traditional roles of homemaker and breadwinner.

To identify the key features of traditional family life I will review two crucial periods in the construction of the UK family policy - 'normal' family in the post war period and reformulation of the family in the eighties. To analyse present gender roles I will use national statistics to establish employment patterns of men and women and differences in lifestyles.I will compare working lives of men and women and look at the introduction of 'family friendly' orking policies along with state benefits and opportunities. I will take into consideration that whilst there are commonalities in the way people construct their family life there is nothing officially set relating to the structure of a family, and that it will be conventional or unconventional depending it's individuals. I will consider the current level of lone parent families, the effect of divorce, remarriage and cohabiting to establish whether the traditional gender roles are retained within families and households today.Since the introduction of the Poor Law the key features of family life were for arents to support their children, husbands to support wives and adults to support their aged parents.

The state began to supplement family incomes through the introduction of free school meals and welfare benefits for the sick, disabled, elderly and unemployed on the assumption that society would be made up of three generations. John Muncie provided details of the initial major reforms in his book entitled 'Understanding the Family' the author referred to the reforms as the Education Act (1944) which made secondary education compulsory.The Family Allowance Act (1945) which saw the ntroduction of universal benefits for families with two or more dependants. Further reforms he referred to were the National Health Service Act (1946) which reorganised the health provision to provide a free and universal service, the National Insurance Act (1946) which saw the extension of unemployment and sickness benefits and finally the Children Act (1948) which coordinated local authority services for children in need.The reforms that followed the Beveridge Report (1942) saw the creation of a post war welfare state which was to assist society to overcome squalor, ignorance, dleness want and disease also known as the five evils (Muncie, 1995:42) This I feel was the period that recognised that a 'normal' family was a gender structured family parented by a male breadwinner and a female homemaker. Beveridge clearly stated who was responsible for whom in families and this was apparent in his National Insurance proposal, it was based on married women being financially dependant on their husbands.

This resulted in the restriction of a married woman's right to benefits, this can be seen in the quote below made by Beveridge in relation to this issue; During marriage most women will not be gainfully employed. The minority of women who undertake paid employment require special treatment differing from that of a single woman. Since such paid work in many cases will be intermittent it should be open to any married woman to undertake it as an exempt person, paying no contributions of her own and acquiring no claim to benefit in employment or sickness. If she prefers to contribute ..

... he may do so but will receive benefits at a reduced rate.

(Beveridge, 1942 :50)As the above quote states married women were given a different class of insurance. By doing this it was accepted that the role of homemaker would be he sole occupation of a married woman and that through marriage a wife gained a legal right to maintenance by her husband. Post War social security was set on male patterns of employment; married women's employment was classed as unimportant as women were presumed dependent on a man. The Welfare State was expected to play a major part in establishing a 'strong British nation'.Pascall (1986: 198) identifies the three main features of 'family ideology expressed in the Beveridge Report': women do housework, care for children and look after elderly relatives, couples consist of a full time worker usually a male bread winner) and a 'housewife' whose work outside the home is insignificant and finally women can look to men for financial support. (Muncie et al, 1995: 44) The foundation of the welfare state was formed around the idea that a family was a traditional gender division and related to the economic issues of that time.

Karen Struening author of the book 'New Family Values' (2002: 4) stated that historically this was often the case as the majority of men were employed in manual roles within local industry. Struening (2002: 5) also stated that labour and economic changes began to affect the gender structured amily in the 1970's with the decline of industry leading to a decrease in earnings for men without qualifications or specialist skills. The loss of the family wage made it difficult for men to retain the traditional role of breadwinner and whilst men's salaries decreased, greater opportunities for women developed.According to the Office of National Statistics: 2004; in 1970 38% of married women between the ages of twenty five and thirty four were employed outside of the home. Women found employment in retail and administrational roles and although the majority of jobs were low paid, art time and did not include benefits this had a major effect on the traditional gender structured family The role of homemaker continued to disadvantage women in the labour market and changes in family form and economic issues forced a reform and in 1979 the process was reversed.

State expenditure on welfare services was cut, private welfare was encouraged and benefit fraud was confronted as a way of helping the family and by the 1980's the 'family' was seen as an alternative to Welfare State. The legislation was concerned with keeping men economically active, assuming that a man's salary would be sufficient to financially support his wife nd family. This however was not the case and the social security reforms appeared to push both parents into the labour market for financial security.According to the Office for National Statistics: October 2006; the number of women returning to work has increased from 20% in 1990 to 70% in 2005 and since 1971 the rates of employment for men have fallen while the rates for women have risen.

The Beveridge Report of the 1940's and the reforms of the 1980's illustrate how the implementation of health and social security policies directly affected family life. The level of change in the availability and structure of employment pportunities have challenged one routine area of social life.Over the last 30 years the dramatic economic decline and industry restructuring forced major levels of unemployment and changed the overall structure of the workforce. The nuclear family with a sole male breadwinner and dependent wife were no longer seen as a viable basis for social organisation.

What was to happen to domestic family life was at the centre of change and from the 1970's to the present day generational changes are apparent. Family life is constantly developing and changes occur all the time, since the 1970's here have been significant changes to the key aspects of family and household experiences.One of the changes particularly in Britain has been the increase of divorce rates, as the rate of divorce rises it is becoming the norm and according to the Office for National Statistics: July 2005; in 2003 153,500 children under the age of sixteen were affected by their parents divorcing in England and Wales. The level of divorce has contributed to other changes in family demography in particular the increasing number of lone parent households.

In 2004 one in four children lived in a lone parent amily (Office for National Statistics : July 2005).It must be noted that it is not just marital breakdown that generates lone parent families as some parents have never married. The statistics highlight that lone parenthood is largely concerned with women as it was recorded in 2004 that 22% of all parents were headed by single women. The level of women who are not and never have married reflects a change in social expectations. In this generation it is acceptable to have children out of wedlock whereas in previous generations unmarried pregnancies generally led to marriage prior to birth.

A high roportion of unmarried mothers are cohabiting with the child's father at the time of birth. Cohabitation is now a widely acceptable form of union, in 2004 statistics showed that 11% of all families were headed by unmarried parents living as husband and wife. The statistics show there has been an increase in the liberalisation of sexual attitudes, this could be due to a number of reasons such as; contraception with the introduction in 1967 of the National Health Service Family Planning Act .Higher Education and changes to housing, gave young people leaving home the opportunity to become independent whereas previously marriage nd employment had been the only routes.

A further reason could be the changes to household forms and childbearing. Women are having children later in life and a proportion of women are choosing not to have children. The birth of children has a major impact on the way a domestic relationship is organised. It is apparent that fathers participate far more in childrearing duties today than ever before, however in the majority of cases childcare continues to be seen as a female responsibility.I identified this was the case by looking at employment patterns of mothers with young children.

According o the Office for National Statistics : October 2006; Working-age women with dependent children are less likely than those without to be in employment and 68% compared with 73% in 2005. The age of the youngest child affects the employment rate of mothers. 56% of working-age women with children under 5 were in employment. This compared with 71% whose youngest child was aged 5 to 10 and 77% whose youngest child was aged 11 to 15.Conversely, men with dependent children are more likely than those without to be in employment.

The age of their children has no impact. Around 90% of men with dependent children were in employment egardless of the age of their youngest child. Women are more likely than men to work part time, particularly if they have dependent children. 39% of women with dependent children worked part time compared with 22% of those without dependent children. Only 4% of men with dependent children and 9% of men without dependent children worked part time.

The statistics show there is a clear significance between the age of the youngest child and participation of the mother in paid employment with the majority being in part time work. The introduction of 'family friendly' policies in the work place have helped create a work life/family balance. Under 'family friendly' legislation, leave is available to employees who have 'parental responsibility' with both parents being able to take up to13 weeks unpaid parental leave per child.Other 'family friendly' rights include paid adoption leave, paid maternity support leave (paternity leave); the right for parents to apply to work flexibly; improvements in maternity leave; and increases in tax credits for children and childcare To establish how house keeping duties are distributed within the family home I ave looked at the statistics relating to lifestyles recorded by the Office of National Statistics: October 2006. Men were more likely than women to take part in leisure (224 minutes per day compared with 180 minutes per day for women in 2005).Women were more likely than men to spend time reading or socialising with other people (113 minutes per day compared with 100 minutes per day).

On average, men spent 28 minutes per day using a computer and women 13 minutes. In 2006, 65% of men and 55% of women had accessed the Internet, whether at home or elsewhere, in the three months before interview. Of these, men used the Internet more regularly with nearly two thirds (64%) using it every day or almost every day, compared with 54% of women. Internet shopping is becoming increasingly popular.A slightly Higher proportion of men than women used the Internet to purchase goods or services associated with leisure, (53% of men compared with 48% of women) and videos or DVDs (45% compared with 39%).

Conversely a higher proportion of women than men used the Internet to purchase clothing or sports goods (42%of women and 34%of men), and food and groceries (25% of women and 16% of men). Women in Great Britain spent more time on shopping and other domestic work in 2005 than on paid work, 228 minutes and 146 minutes respectively.In comparison, men spent more time on paid work (225 minutes) than on domestic work (129 minutes). If paid work and domestic work are combined, women still spent 20 minutes more on average per day on work than men. Overall, women carried out about two thirds of the time spent on housework (178 minutes a day compared with 100 minutes for men). Women spent more time than men cooking and washing up, cleaning and tidying, washing clothes and shopping (159 minutes per day compared with 71 minutes per day for men).

Men spent more time performing DIY repairs and gardening (23 minutes per day compared with 11 minutes per day for women). (Focus on Gender: Office for National Statistics: October 2004) To conclude through researching the traditional and contemporary roles of the famiIy I have found that over the last two decades the lives of men and women have become more similar. However, there are noticeable differences with regards to running the family home and employment. According to the Office of National Statistics, 2006, with regards to labour, in 1985 there were 2. million more men employed than women. In 2005 men and women were employed in an equal number of roles with each sex performing 13.

3 million jobs. However, half of women were in part time employment compared to one out of six men being employed on a part time basis. The figures show that more men are employed on a full time basis than women therefore it could be said that a higher number of women are working part time in order to create a balance between work and the role of homemaker.I have identified that contemporary families are not made up solely of a married couple and their children and that the traditional concept of a family excluded lone parent amilies, same sex couples, female breadwinners and step families.

I found that the way a family operates reflects the different social and economic positions of each individual within it and that the external factors and issues that influence family life are extensive.The change in employment structure altered the division of labour and financial responsibility within the family along with demands on family support made by health and education authorities all have had an impact on the domestic and family characteristics and relationships. Overall I have found that each family will develop over ime as circumstances change and however conventional or unconventional the family is, it will alter with age and dependency of children.Less predictable factors could also influence the family roles such as divorce or unemployment. The ideologies of parenting and childhood have dramatically changed over the last 30 years and there appears to be an opportunity now for parents to balance work and domestic duties with the assistance of 'family friendly' policies.

However, statistics do show that on average men spend more time out at work than women and on average women spend more time doing domestic duties than men do.