RRL FOR MEN AND WOMEN IN THE FAMILY

THEORY/ DIRECT QUOTE

CONCEPT
Sex Roles in
Sociological
Literature
____________
DecisionMaking and
Sex Roles in
Marriage
____________
Marital
Satisfaction

First Perspective:
1.) "Sex stratification," or what
others call "gender differentiation"
2.) This construct taps the idea
that aggregates of men and
women
are
not
randomly
distributed. Instead, there is a
layering effect in which men tend
to enjoy greater amounts of
valued rewards (both tangible
and intangible) than women.
3.) The first class oppression [is]
that of the female by the male
sex." From this perspective men
represent a dominant group in
society, women, a subordinate
group.
Second Perspective:
1.) Division of Labor by Sex
2.) It is the attachment of gender
to particular social
positions that gives rise to the
layering effect that exists in
virtually all known societies.
3.) most preindustrial settings
men became attached to roles that
existed in the public sphere;
women's roles were found in the
private
sphere
-most
importantly, of course, in the
family.
4.) While modern societies make

PARAPHRASED
IDEAS

SOURCES
J. Scanzoni & G. L.
Fox, Sex Roles,
Family and Society:
The Seventies and
Beyond, available at
http://www.jstor.o
rg/stable/351822
(last accessed Dec.
25, 2015)

possible
greater
interchangeability of the sexes
between public and private
spheres, most women still remain
part of a relatively disadvantaged
stratum. As an interest group,
women currently have relatively
little power to change the existing
stratification system.
Third Perspective:
1.) Sex-Role Norms or Gender
Norms
2.) Often known as Sex-Role
Attitudes or Ideologies
3.) Taken to represent actors
evaluations of and reactions to the
sexual stratification system, and
to gender-linked division of labor.
If a woman has income, does she:
gain greater power, do less
housework, and feel less stress
and more life and marital
satisfaction? Given McDonald's
(pp. 841-854) decade review of the
"family power" literature, we need
only emphasize that power itself
is simply one component of
the larger matter of decisionmaking (Nagel, 1975) and that
tangible
resources
constitute
merely one dimension helping to
account for the distribution of
conjugal and parent-child power
(Scanzoni and Szinovacz, 1980)
Part of the explanation for the
relative
nonparticipation
of

husbands in household tasks is

the differing pace of changes in
preferences for housework. While
changes in women's occupational
behaviors
are
increasingly
preferred, changes in men's and
women's household behaviors are
comparatively
less
strongly
preferred by both sexes.
Comparisons of married men and
women, regardless of women's
employment
status,
have
consistently shown men to be
advantaged regarding morbidity,
mental health, depression, and
various
measures
of
life
satisfaction. This sex difference is
generally thought to indicate that
marriage functions as a more
effective support system for men
than women.
There has been continuing
uncertainty whether or not the
wife's employment has positive,
neutral, or negative effects on the
husband's and on the wife's
satisfaction levels.
In trying to sort out the influences
on psychological well-being and
on marital satisfaction, the
overriding point seems to be that
differences
in
stress
and
satisfactions (for both sexes) are
not dependent merely on the
objective reality of whether or not

the wife works. Instead, high

stress and low satisfactions seem
to result primarily from the
inability of persons to achieve
their preferences.
It is the capability to achieve
particular preferences that seems
to enhance feelings of individual
and group well-being.
The preferences help cause the
sexes to be interdependent, thus
generating
decision-making
processes that may some- times
entail conflict and negotiation.

Historical
approach to
men and
women in the
family
Spanish
Regime
American Era
and the

These
distinctions
tend
to
perpetuate stereotypical taskassignments
and
gender
stratification. However, it appears
that children and young adults
whose parents are better educated
are less exposed to traditional
preferences and stereotypes than
children from less-advantaged
homes.
The introduction of Spanish
customs, religion, and laws
imposed numerous restraints on
women.
The Roman doctrines of and as
patria potestas and paterfamilias
absolute ruler and the wife's
subordination to the authority of
her husband were seen in the
several provisions of the Spanish

M. Feliciano, Law,
Gender, and Family
in the Philippines,
available at
http://www.jstor.o
rg/stable/3054074
(last accessed Dec.
25, 2015)

Commonweal
th
Japanese
Occupation
The
Philippine
Republic
Onwards

Marriage Law of 1870, the

Spanish Code of Commerce of
1845, and the Spanish Civil Law
of 1885.
The pivotal events in the history
of the Filipina during the Spanish
regime were (1) her entry into the
world of wage labor, which came
with
her
employment
in
government-owned
tobacco
factories in 1781; (2) her demand
for a more enlightened education,
made in 1888 when the women of
Malolos petitioned Governor
General Weyler to open an
academy where they could learn
Spanish; (3) her admission to a
teaching career in 1894;2 and (4)
her involvement in the liberation
of the country in 1896.
Under U.S. rule the political laws
of the Philippines were totally
abrogated, and Spanish laws,
customs, and property rights
inconsistent
with
the
U.S.
Constitution and with American
principles and institutions were
superseded.
U.S. rule ushered in the concepts
of liberty and egalitarianism.
Education, too, was a priority. Act
No. 74 (1901) provided for free
primary education for boys and
girls and gave access to a normal
school, a trade school, and a

school of agriculture. Admission

to state universities and colleges
was open to all regard- less of sex,
as was stated explicitly in the law
that established the
University of the Philippines in
1908.
Between 1912 and 1933 bills were
introduced to extend suffrage to
women, but not until 1933, with
the passage of Act No. 4112, were
women granted the right to vote
and made eligible for all public
offices. This statute was never
implemented, however, because a
constitutional convention was
convoked in 1934.
The government adopted policies
to protect women in the work
force, but, in fact, these merely
restricted
employment
opportunities. Special protection
was based on the relative physical
weakness of the average woman
and on her child-bearing and
maternal functions. Despite the
seeming improvement in the
status of women, then, the
stereotype of women as wives and
mothers remained.
During this period, a more liberal
divorce law was promulgated.
The allowable reasons for divorce
were (1) adultery on the part of

the wife and concubinage on the

part of the husband; (2) the
attempt by one spouse on the life
of the other; (3) a second or
subsequent marriage by either
spouse before the first marriage
was legally dissolved; (4) a
loathsome contagious disease; (5)
incurable insanity; (6) impotence;
(7) intentional or unjustified
desertion for one year; (8) an
unexplained absence for three
years; (9) repeated bodily violence
of such a nature that the spouses
could not continue living together
without endangering the lives of
both or of one of them; and (10)
slander by deed or gross insult to
such an extent that further living
together was impracticable.
Establishment
of
the
1935
Philippine
Constitution.
Independence also brought many
social changes, resulting in the
gradual restoration of women's
rights. In drafting the Civil Code,
the Code Com- mission adopted
as a fundamental principle the
liberalization of women's rights,
which is reflected in several
provisions.
Although liberal laws were
adopted, the code retained
discriminatory provisions against
women. For example, the code set
the age of consent for marriage at

16 years of age for males and

14 for females (art. 54). Parental
consent was required for females
below 18 to marry and for males
below 20 (art. 62). A daughter
could not leave the parental home
without the consent of the father
or mother in whose company she
lived except when she became a
wife or when she exercised a
profession or calling or when the
father or mother contracted a
subsequent marriage (art. 403);
these requirements did not apply
to a son.
Other obvious manifestations of
the husband's authority were
illustrated by his right to fix the
family residence (art. 110); the
father's power to administer the
property
of
unemancipated
children (art. 320); the father's
preferential right to give or deny
consent for the marriage of a child
(art. 61); and the husband's
administration of the conjugal
property (arts. 112 & 165).
Until the enactment of the Family
Code,
widows
were
also
discriminated against. Civil Code
article 84 provides that "no
marriage license shall be issued to
a widow till after three hundred
days following the death of her
husband, unless in the meantime
she has given birth to a child."

Necessity for
marriage
between men
and women

The purpose of the law was to

prevent confusion about the
paternity of a child, but this could
easily be prevented by the
issuance of a medical certificate to
the effect that the applicant is not
pregnant.
Justice Irene R. Cortes said in a
1992 speech before the Philippine Women Judges Association:
"[R]eform
in
the
law
unaccompanied by a change in
the environment in which the law
will operate, cannot by itself
achieve the objective sought."
Nock Men reap greater gains
than women for virtually every
outcome affected by marriage.
Research results the greater
benefit of marriage for men than
for women on many dimensions,
particularly physical and mental
health.
Women provide "kin-keeping"
Benefits to men by strengthening
their relationships with their
children and other relatives.
By
implication,
they
posit
marriage to be a normal good
for men but an inferior good for
women when they argue that
increased earnings lead men to
buy into family roles (Becker)
while women use theirs to buy
out of marriage. (Espenshade
and Westoff)

F. Goldscheider &
G. Kaufman, Do
Men
"Need"
a
Spouse More than
Women?:
Perceptions of the
Importance
of
Marriage for Men
and
Women,
available
at
http://www.jstor.o
rg/stable/40220088
(last accessed on
December 25, 2015)

Behavior can be meaningfully

interpreted
only
when
we
understand the belief systems that
surround the act (Tucker). Indeed,
women with more positive
attitudes toward marriage marry
more quickly than those with less
positive attitudes.
While most people believe that
the married are happier than
those who are not married, this
belief is more likely to be held by
men more than women. (Axinn
and Thornton 2000)
Both men and women agree that
it is easier for a woman than a
man to have a fully satisfying life
without marrying. Both men and
women appear to realize the
differential benefits of marriage
for men, such as the findings that
married men are healthier and
happier and have higher incomes
and more sex than unmarried
men (Waite 1995).

Work Effort
differences
between men
and women

Marriage may also be tied to

cultural
conceptions
of
masculinity, and marriage may
even be seen as a rite of passage
into manhood (Nock, 1998)
Recent developments in human
capital theory suggest that men
and women differ in how they
allocate effort to work activities.

D. Bielby & W.
Bielby, She Works
Hard
for
the
Money: Household
Responsibilities

(Domestic
and Labor)

Are women willing to work

harder and more efficiently than
men for a given level of rewards?
Social psychological research on
equity processes suggests that this
is so.
Experiments show that men and
women differ in how they invoke
equity considerations in allocating
effort and rewards. On average,
women pay themselves less than
men performing the same task,
and they tend to undervalue their
efforts
relative
to
men
(Lenney1977; Callahan-Levyand
Messe 1979; Major, McFarlin, and
Gagnon 1984). It appears that, on
average, women have lower
internal standards of "personal
entitlement" and, in the absence
of salient, external comparison
standards,
make
fairness
judgments based on application
of
same-sex
norms
about
appropriate rewards (Bergeretal.
1972;Crosby1982)
Evidence on sex differences in
entitlement standards and effort is
limited to experimental social
psychological studies.
Most men and women work in
sex-segregated jobs (Epstein 1970;
Oppenheimer1970;
Bielbyand
Baron
1984,1986;
Reskinand
Hartmann 1986).

and the Allocation

of Work Effort,
available
at
http://www.jstor.o
rg/stable/2780364
(last accessed on
Dec. 25, 2015)

As
long
as
women
lack
information about the reward
structure for men, they will be
willing to work for less pay.
(Moreover, husbands of working
women benefit by avoiding
responsibility
for
household
activities, despite the fact that
their wives expend as much, or
more, energy as they do at work.)
The lower work effort of women is
assumed to be due to their greater
family responsibilities and lower
market human capital.