A NEW LOOK AT OLD THEORIES: NEW TIMES CALL FOR NEW VIEWS

1
A NEW LOOK AT OLD THEORIESNEW TIMES CALL FOR
NEW VIEWS

• Rosalind Chait Barnett, Ph.D.
• Womens Studies Research Center
• Brandeis University

02/09/02
2
Three Classic Theories About Men, Women, Work,
and Family

• Functionalist Theories of the Family
• Freudian Theory
• Sociobiology and Evolutionary Psychology

3
Shortcomings

• These theories are not contextualized that is,
  they make sweeping statements about men, women,
  the conditions necessary for family stability,
  and workplace behaviors, without regard to
  within-gender variations.

4

• Moreover, they ignore race, class, age, and
  such situational variations as sole-breadwinner,
  dual-earner, or single-parent family, or the
  effects of the particular historical period in
  which they were proposed.

5

• 2. They began with the assumption of major
  gender differences and then developed theories
  that either attempted to account for these
  assumed differences or projected those
  differences forward.

6

• 3. They were deductive, not inductive. Since
  most early theorists were unable, for demographic
  or methodological reasons, to test their root
  assumptions, they put them forth as postulates.

7
Functionalist Theories
The crux of these theories is that gender-role
specialization and complementarity, or
asymmetric, mutual dependence, is key to marital
stability and presumably to marital quality.
8
Functions of the Husband-Father Role
the role of the adult male is primarily anchored
in the occupational world, in his job and through
it by his status-giving and income-earning
functions for the family (p. 355)it is
fundamentally by virtue of the importance of his
occupational rolethat in our society we can
unequivocally designate the husband-father as the
instrumental leader of the family as a system
p. 13). Parsons Bales, 1955.
9
Functions of the Wife-Mother Role
The role of housewife is still the
overwhelmingly predominant one for the married
woman with small children" (p. 14). And ... the
adult female is anchored primarily in the
internal affairs of the family, as wife, mother,
and manager of the household... (p. 355).
Parsons Bales, 1955.
10
The American Nuclear Family
the broad structural outlines of the American
nuclear family, as we have delineated it, are not
fortuitous in the sense of being bound to a
particular highly specific social situation, but
are of generic significance with respect to the
structure and functions of the family in all
societies (p. 355). Parsons, 1949.
11
Post-War Years

• Massive movement of women out of the factories
  that supported the war effort and into newly
  constructed suburbs
• Early age of first marriage
• Extraordinarily high birth rate
• Low divorce rate

12
Three Trends

• Increasing labor force participation of women
• Decreasing birth rate
• Increasing age of first marriage

13
(No Transcript)
14
Unchanging Role Priorities for Women
Even if, as seems possible, it should come about
that the average married woman had some kind of
job, it seems most unlikely that this relative
imbalance would be upset that either the roles
would be reversed, or their qualitative
differentiation in these respects completely
erased (p. 12-13). Parsons Bales, 1955.
15
Womens Identity
young women often ask whether they can have an
identity before they know whom they will marry
and for whom they will make a homeSomething in
the young womans identity must keep itself open
for the peculiarities of the man to be joined and
that of the children to be brought up (p.
283). Erikson, 1968.
16
The Differential Parental Investment and the
Mechanism of Sexual Selection
Male and female genetic ancestors developed
distinct strategies for solving the different
reproductive challenges they confronted.
17
Male Strategy
For males, the primary challenge was to obtain
access to as many females as possible, thereby
increasing the probability of passing on their
genes. To that end, males competed with other
males for access to females.
18
Female Strategy
In contrast, the most successful strategy for
women to employ was to invest heavily in a
limited number of offspring. Thus, over time,
women who succeeded in rearing their offspring to
adulthood increased their reproductive fitness.
19
Reproductive Fitness
Men who were aggressive and competitive and who
did not invest heavily in their offspring would
be successful, whereas women who were nurturant
and caring and who invested heavily in their
offspring would be successful.
20
Natural Behaviors
Proponents of this viewpoint suggest that
deviations from natural behaviors are likely to
result in negative mental-health consequences.
21
Empirical Evidence
Results overall from systematic studies have
failed to support the claims of large, consistent
gender differences found in these classical
theories.
22
Empirical Evidence
Several studies indicate that many gender
differences are conditioned by social context.
23
Empirical Evidence
Also challenging the gender-differences view is
the finding that for both genders, the roles of
partner and parent are ranked similarly in
prominence and both higher than the role of
employee, which is also ranked similarly by women
and men.
24
Empirical Evidence
Little support has been found for the prediction
that women and men who engage in non-natural
roles e.g., the employee role for women and the
parental role for men will experience distress.
25
Empirical Evidence
In current research, the low distress of women in
multiple roles has been attributed primarily to
the positive effects of the employee role.