A-Level Sociology: couples, power and family policy

Two of the content areas of the Families and Households option in A-level Sociology (for example, AQA A-level Sociology 7192, Paper 2) are gender roles, domestic labour and power relationships within the family, and the relationship of the family to state policies. This material covers both, building on the functionalist, feminist and New Right views of the family you meet first.

The first half of the quiz is about couples. You distinguish Bott's segregated and joint conjugal roles, identify the changes Young and Willmott used to explain their symmetrical family, and recognise Oakley's objection that their measure of 'sharing' exaggerated men's contribution. You then weigh cultural against material explanations of who does the housework, apply Duncombe and Marsden's idea of the triple shift, and use Edgell's and Pahl and Vogler's research on decision-making and money management to judge whether power in couples has become equal. A question on domestic violence sets Wilkinson's materialist explanation against the radical feminist view of Dobash and Dobash.

The second half is about the state. You meet Donzelot's argument that professionals police poor families, Murray's New Right claim that benefits create perverse incentives, the feminist view of Land and Leonard that many policies assume and reinforce a patriarchal family, and Drew's contrast between familistic and individualistic gender regimes.

Every quiz question is an invented couple, study or country with one defensible answer, and each explanation adds the counter-argument you would use in an essay.

The material offers four formats. The 12-question quiz explains each answer. The 17-card flashcard deck covers the key terms and studies, from joint conjugal roles to gender regimes. The printable written work sets eight open questions, from short explanations to assessing the march of progress view and the feminist view of family policy, with ruled space for handwritten answers that are then checked. The oral exam puts you in front of an examiner who asks one question at a time, follows up on your reasoning and gives brief feedback at the end.

Use it once you know the main perspectives on the family, to build evidence for essays on domestic labour, power in relationships and the role of the state.

• Distinguish segregated and joint conjugal roles and evaluate the symmetrical family thesis
• Compare cultural and material explanations of the domestic division of labour
• Explain emotion work and the triple shift, and use evidence on decision-making and money management to assess power in couples
• Compare radical feminist and materialist explanations of domestic violence
• Explain functionalist, New Right, feminist and Foucauldian views of state policy and the family
• Distinguish familistic and individualistic gender regimes

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the Families and Households option of A-level Sociology specifications (for example AQA A-level Sociology 7192, specification version 1.2, section 4.2.2: the family and state policies; gender roles, domestic labour and power relationships). Unpaid work figures: ONS, 'Women shoulder the responsibility of unpaid work', November 2016.