Alexis J. Walker

Gender in families: women and men in marriage work and parenthood.

The authors review the research on gender by focusing on 3 domains of family life - marriage work (both wage and family work) and parenthood. Regarding marriage they consider intimacy communication and conflict and wife-battering. Regarding wage work they consider women and men as providers and resistance to wives as co-providers. Regarding family work they consider the nature of family work and resistance to sharing housework and child care. Regarding parenthood they consider the images of motherhood and fatherhood activities and experiences of mothering and fathering and the gender differentiation that accompanies parenting. The authors conclude that gender specialization in families persists across the domains of marriage work and parenthood. Everyday and ultimate responsibility for marriage housework and parenthood usually remains with women. Responsibility for breadwinning usually remains with men. Most women help men with provision and many men help women with family work and parenting although partners collude to sustain the belief that men are primary providers but parenting is shared. Partners tend to view mens minimal help with raising children as substantial and womens substantial help with provision as minimal. Though a growing number of women are bothered by this lopsided arrangement most men and women do not consider family life unfair. (authors modified)

The Dyad as the Unit of Analysis: Conceptual and Methodological Issues

This work assesses conceptual and methodological issues in the use of the dyad as the unit of analysis in family research. Illustrative examples from dyadic research and a table to aid researchers in the generation of dyadic studies using one or two informants are included. The focus of dyadic research is the relationship between two people. All components of a study must be at the level of the dyad and each stage of research must have the relationship as the object of study. Conceptualizing the pattern between two people is an essential first step. The pattern can take many forms reflecting different conceptual models of relationships and interactions. Individual properties such as values or needs must be distinguished from relationship properties such as norms or roles. Information about the partners individual characteristics or relationship may come from many sources and it is necessary to specify whose construction is under examination. Issues of subjectivity or objectivity self-report or observation and one informant or two relate to generalizability of information. How relationships are conceptualized must also be congruent with choice of sampling procedures. Two major weaknesses are common at the level of data analysis: data from both members of the dyad are aggregated rather than reflecting the pattern between the two or the conceptual basis of the constructed relationship pattern is not clear. The paper concludes with a discussion of the range of research questions that can appropriately be addressed using one or both partners as informants.

Informal Caregiving to Aging Family Members: A Critical Review

Since the early 1980s, there has been an explosion of literature on caregiving to aging family members. This work appears in a variety of outlets, but mostly in gerontological journals, and somewhat peripherally in journals specifically focused on families. Within the family caregiving literature, there is great ambiguity around three significant questions: (a) What is caregiving? (b) What are the negative and positive outcomes of caregiving for caregivers? and (c) What is the relation between family or informal caregiving and paid or formal caregiving? Confusion in these three areas makes it difficult to compare findings across studies and to draw reliable implications for practice. Thus, we examine the literature on caregiving to aging family members with particular attention to the family aspect of caregiving, addressing these three central questions. Throughout this review, we note assumptions and empirical gaps in the literature, as well as the implications of this literature for researchers and for practitioners who work with family members, particularly the caregivers. WHAT IS CAREGIVING? Most commonly, family caregiving has been conceptualized as occurring when one or more family members give aid or assistance to other family members beyond that required as part of normal everyday life. Generally, family caregiving begins when aging family members require assistance due to debilitating chronic conditions or diseases, such as severe arthritis, significant sensory loss, Parkinsons Disease, Alzheimers Disease, or when they are otherwise frail. A review of the family caregiving literature, however, reveals that a clear and precise definition, which is essential for researchers and for professionals who work with family caregivers, is 1 missing (Barer & Johnson, 1990; Cantor, 1991; MaloneBeach & Zarit, 1991). Caregiving Versus Aid Caregiving is not always easily distinguished from aid given as a part of the normal exchange in family relationships. Some of the difficulty in defining family caregiving rests in the history and nature of the connection between the caregiver and the care receiver. Even when care receivers have similar levels of dependence, the help provided by family caregivers differs by gender and by generation (Dwyer & Seccombe, 1991). For example, using data from the 1982 National Long-Term Care Survey and the associated National Survey of Informal Caregivers, Dwyer and Seccombe (1991) found that caregiving husbands reported giving more care than wives. The authors suggested that caregivers report activities that are not ordinary for them or that are not part of their normal responsibilities. As wives and/or mothers, women perform many tasks, such as laundry, meal preparation, house cleaning, and so on, that are included in measures of instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs; e.g., laundry, meal preparation). Because IADLs are consistent with everyday household work (Sankar, 1993), wives may not consider such tasks to be caregiving activities, but husbands, who are less often involved in household work, and who take on these tasks primarily because their wives are unable to do them, see dusting and vacuuming as caregiving. In the same way, daughters may distinguish the tasks they do in their own households from those they do in the homes of their mothers and fathers. Cleaning house is typically a responsibility of wives in their own homes, but having to do so in another house is caregiving. Similarly, in the National Health Interview Survey, men aged 75 and above were less likely than women to report needing assistance with IADLs, but equally likely to report needing assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs), such as bathing and walking (Pratt, Sasser-Coen, & Acock, 1993). Perhaps older men did not see in themselves a need for IADL assistance because someone had always done these tasks for them, but help with grooming, bathing, and dressing was recognized as aid. …

Gender and Family Relationships

For over 25 years, researchers have focused on gender as an important dimension of family relationships. The nature of that focus has changed significantly, however. Early research highlighted gender as an independent variable, that is, as a way to explain differences between women and men in marital satisfaction, power in decision making, and so forth. Gender was viewed as an unchangeable, unmalleable given. It was assumed that family life was inherently different for women and men. This approach was consistent with a focus on gender roles in families—differential obligations women and men were believed to incur, appropriately, because of their gender and their socialization into adulthood. In other words, women and men were seen as engaging in certain behaviors and occupying specific roles because they were female or male (Osmond & Thorne, 1993; Thompson, 1993; West & Zimmerman, 1987).

Mothers and Daughters: Aid Patterns and Attachment.

In this paper we examine the association of aid exchange with attachment in two sets of mother-daughter relationships-student women and their mothers (139 pairs) and these same middle-aged mothers and their mothers (110 pairs). In each case both partners are respondents. Each pair is categorized by the pattern of aid exchange-high reciprocity, low reciprocity, mother dependent, daughter dependent. Attachment reflects emotional dependence. Mothers reported greater attachment than daughters in the older pairs. There was a main effect for aid pattern on attachment in older pairs; high reciprocity relationships displayed greater attachment than other aid patterns. In the younger pairs, there was an interaction effect of aid pattern and generation on attachment. Mothers and daughters perceived attachment differently in nonreciprocal relationships but not in reciprocal relationships; the dependent partner reported less attachment. Different results for the two sets of intergenerational relationships are discussed in terms of individual and relationship development.

Predicting Sex Role Attitudes

Variance in sex role attitudes among a national sample of 1,522 women is investigated using a scale of attitudes toward the appropriate role of women as the dependent variable in a multiple regression analysis. Exchange theory would predict that the traditional orientation toward women, being most costly today, is likely to be less favored by women with the most available alternatives. The findings indeed show that those who supported a traditional role for women were older, less educated, had lower incomes, and lower feelings of personal competence.

Perceptions of relationship change and caregiver satisfaction.

Elderly pairs (133) of unmarried mothers and adult caregiving daughters were interviewed about the impact of caregiving on their relationship. Daughters also rated their satisfaction with the caregiving role. Most mothers and daughters reported no change or positive effects of caregiving on their relationship. Daughters who reported positive effects or no change had positive evaluations of, and were satisfied with, the caregiving role. The implications for family service providers are discussed.

Teaching about Race, Gender, and Class Diversity in United States Families.

This essay, written from a feminist perspective, advocates educational efforts representing the diversity of contemporary US. family life by race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class. In it, the author attends to issues of content, such as the social construction of difference and intragroup diversity, and suggests pedagogical strategies to handle the emotional climate of the classroom and encourage student participation. An annotated list of resources for instructor and student use is included.

Perceived Reciprocity in Family Caregiving.

A prerequisite for practitioners working with caregiving families is an understanding of whether care receivers are perceived to be contributors to their relationship with the caregiver. Toward that end, 174 care-receiving mothers and their caregiving daughters were interviewed. The majority perceived that daughters received aid from mothers in return for help given. Mothers who reported giving advice and money had better health while mothers who reported giving information were more dependent than those who did not report such aid. The implications for practitioners are discussed.

Meanings of Sisterhood and Developmental Disability: Narratives From White Nondisabled Sisters

Integrating thought from critical feminist and disability theorists via a strategic social constructionist perspective, the authors analyzed 10 in-depth qualitative interviews to begin to understand the dialogue between (a) how nondisabled sisters understand themselves and their siblings with developmental disabilities and (b) wider systems of power or discourse. The women in this exploratory study described themselves as good sisters by portraying their siblings with disabilities as normal, emphasizing opportunities for moral enhancement, minimizing personal sacrifices, and accepting the gendered nature of family care. This study suggests that nondisabled sisters co-opt ideology that holds women accountable for moral conduct in families to oppose discourse that devalues people with disabilities. This ideology does not, however, help them transcend a gender system that requires mothers and sisters but not fathers and brothers to engage in family care.