Gender roles and domestic labour | AQA A-Level Sociology
Updated: 12 hours ago
For Specification 7192
AQA A-Level Sociology | Free Revision Notes
Estimated study time:Â 60 minutes
This Gender roles and domestic labour A-Level Sociology revision page examines how responsibilities within families may be organised by gender and how sociologists can analyse the division of work within the home. AQA specifically requires students to understand gender roles, domestic labour and power relationships within the family in contemporary society.  Building on different contemporary family arrangements [Family and household diversity], this lesson shifts attention from the structure of families to relationships within them, before the next lesson examines inequality and domestic power [Power relationships within families].
Learning Objectives 🎯
By the end of this revision page, you should be able to:
Define gender roles and domestic labour in the context of family life.
Examine how responsibilities within families may be organised according to gender.
Explain how sociologists can identify patterns in the division of domestic labour.
Apply structural, social action, consensus and conflict approaches to gendered domestic arrangements.
Analyse relationships between domestic labour, social change and family diversity.
Evaluate sociological explanations and evidence concerning gendered domestic arrangements.
Revision Notes đź“š
Gender roles and domestic labour A-Level Sociology revision overview
AQA requires students studying Families and Households to understand sociological explanations of:
gender roles
domestic labour
power relationships within the family
these relationships in contemporary society.
AQA also requires topic areas to be examined through the two course-wide themes:
socialisation, culture and identity
social differentiation, power and stratification
and students should examine both sociological evidence and explanations.
This means domestic labour should not simply be treated as a list of household tasks. The sociological question is how work and responsibilities are divided, whether that division is gendered, how it can be explained and what it may reveal about relationships within families.
What are gender roles?
Gender roles concern socially organised expectations and patterns of behaviour associated with gender.
Within family life, sociologists can examine whether particular family responsibilities or activities are associated more strongly with one gender than another.
What is domestic labour?
AQA identifies domestic labour as required Families and Households content.
At the level required for this page, domestic labour concerns the work involved in maintaining family and household life.
The important sociological issue is its division.
Sociologists can ask:
Who performs different forms of domestic work?
How much work is performed by different family members?
Is domestic work shared or divided?
Is its allocation related to gender?
How do family members explain or understand the arrangement?
Has the pattern changed?
Does it differ between families and households?
These questions allow students to analyse domestic labour rather than merely describe that household work exists.
The division of domestic labour
The division of domestic labour refers to the way household and family responsibilities are distributed between people.
A division could be examined in several ways.
Dimension | Question a sociologist might ask |
Amount of work | Does each person perform a similar or different amount? |
Type of work | Are different responsibilities performed by different people? |
Frequency | Are some responsibilities performed regularly while others are occasional? |
Sharing | Are responsibilities jointly performed or mainly allocated to individuals? |
Gender | Is the pattern of allocation associated with gender? |
Change | Has the arrangement altered over time? |
This framework allows students to interpret evidence without assuming in advance what the pattern will be.
Do not assume the pattern before examining the evidence
The lesson objective requires students to explain patterns in the division of domestic labour.
However, the supplied specification does not provide:
statistics measuring domestic labour
time-use figures
named sociologists
named studies
evidence showing whether domestic labour has become more equal or unequal
evidence comparing different social groups.
Equality and inequality in domestic labour
When evidence is available, one important issue is whether domestic responsibilities appear to be divided equally or unequally.
An equal arrangement would imply that responsibilities are shared in a broadly balanced way.
An unequal arrangement would involve one person taking a greater share of domestic responsibilities.
However, judging equality is not always as simple as counting individual tasks.
A sociologist may need to consider:
how often tasks are performed
how much time they require
whether different kinds of responsibility can reasonably be compared
whether participants themselves view the arrangement as fair.
This illustrates why both quantitative and qualitative evidence may be useful.
Gendered domestic arrangements
A domestic arrangement is gendered when gender is related to the way roles or responsibilities are organised.
The key sociological question is not simply whether men and women perform different tasks in one individual household.
Students need to consider whether there is a wider social pattern and how that pattern might be explained.
One household cannot establish a population-wide pattern.
A sociological explanation therefore needs appropriate evidence.
Family structure does not automatically determine domestic roles
The previous lesson examined variation in family and household structures [Family and household diversity].
An important connection is that knowing a family's structure does not necessarily tell us how responsibilities are divided within it.
Sociologists need to distinguish between:
family or household structure
and
relationships and roles within that structure.
Two households placed in the same structural category could potentially organise domestic responsibilities differently.
This is one reason social action and qualitative evidence may be useful.
Gender roles and socialisation
One of AQA's core themes is socialisation, culture and identity.
This gives sociologists one possible framework for investigating gender roles.
If expectations concerning gender are socially learned, sociologists can examine whether socialisation may contribute to patterns of behaviour within family life.
However, the supplied specification does not identify a particular named socialisation explanation for domestic labour.
Gender roles as socially patterned
A sociological approach differs from an explanation based purely on individual personality.
If evidence demonstrates that domestic roles are patterned according to gender, a sociologist may ask whether wider:
social expectations
cultural meanings
socialisation
structural circumstances
help account for that pattern.
This shifts the explanation from:
"One individual happens to prefer this task."
towards:
"Is there evidence of a broader pattern, and what social processes might explain it?"
Social structure and domestic labour
AQA requires students throughout the course to understand the significance of social structure.
A structural explanation would examine whether wider features of society influence the organisation of roles within families.
The reasoning could be:
Families exist within wider social structures.
Wider structures contain patterns of expectations and inequality.
Family members experience these wider circumstances.
Domestic roles may therefore reflect wider social patterns.
Similar arrangements across many families may indicate more than individual preference.
This connects with the family's relationship with wider society [Families and the social structure].
Structural explanations: strengths
A structural explanation may be useful because it helps explain patterns across families.
If a similar division of domestic labour is found repeatedly, it may be difficult to explain the pattern purely through unrelated individual decisions.
Structural explanations direct attention towards shared social circumstances.
They also connect directly with AQA's requirement to analyse family life in relation to wider society.
Structural explanations: limitations
A strongly structural explanation can become too deterministic.
Even where wider gender expectations exist, family members may:
interpret them differently
negotiate different arrangements
challenge them
change their behaviour over time.
Structural circumstances therefore do not necessarily determine exactly how every household operates.
This introduces the importance of social action.
Social action explanations
A social action approach emphasises people's:
meanings
interactions
interpretations
actions.
Applied to domestic labour, it encourages sociologists to examine how family members themselves understand and negotiate their roles.
Instead of treating people as simply following predetermined gender expectations, a social action approach asks how domestic arrangements are created through interaction.
Why meanings matter
Two households could display a similar numerical division of work while the individuals involved interpret the arrangement differently.
For example, researchers might need to investigate whether participants see their arrangement as:
shared
unequal
appropriate
temporary
changing.
These are hypothetical research possibilities, not claims about actual families.
They show why quantitative measures alone may not reveal everything about domestic relationships.
Structure and action compared
Structural approach | Social action approach |
Focuses on wider social patterns | Focuses on meanings and interactions |
May explain why similar arrangements appear across households | May explain why families respond differently to similar circumstances |
Emphasises social influences and constraints | Emphasises negotiation and action |
Useful for analysing gendered patterns | Useful for understanding how those patterns are experienced |
A strong sociological explanation may recognise both.
People negotiate family roles, but they do so within wider social circumstances.
Gender roles and social change
AQA requires the family to be understood in relation to social change.
Domestic arrangements should therefore not automatically be assumed to remain permanently fixed.
Sociologists can investigate whether:
the division of domestic work has changed over time
expectations concerning family roles have changed
different generations display different patterns
some aspects change while others remain relatively stable.
Change and continuity
When valid evidence is available, students should consider both change and continuity.
A weak conclusion might say:
"Gender roles have changed completely."
A stronger approach asks:
What exactly has changed?
How large is the change?
Which aspects have remained?
Does the pattern apply to everyone?
Is the evidence measuring behaviour or people's attitudes?
This avoids exaggerating evidence.
Domestic labour and the economy
AQA specifically requires students to examine the family's relationship with the economy.
Economic circumstances may therefore be relevant to explanations of domestic roles where supported by evidence.
For example, a sociologist might examine relationships between people's wider circumstances and how responsibilities at home are organised.
However, the specification does not provide a particular economic explanation for gendered domestic labour.
Named explanations or claims about exactly how employment affects domestic arrangements should therefore not be invented from this source.
The wider connection is explored through Families, social change and the economy.
State policies and domestic arrangements
Similarly, state policies form part of the structural environment surrounding families.
Government intervention may potentially alter the circumstances in which families organise their lives.
However:
policy change occurring alongside changing gender roles does not demonstrate that the policy caused the change.
A causal explanation would need evidence showing how intervention changed circumstances and how those circumstances affected domestic arrangements.
This connects with government intervention and family life [Families and state policies].
Family diversity and domestic labour
Family diversity creates an important evaluation of any broad claim about gender roles.
If contemporary family and household structures are diverse, sociologists should ask whether one explanation of domestic labour applies equally to all arrangements.
A strong answer avoids saying:
"Families divide domestic work in this way."
Instead, it may say:
"Evidence may identify a wider pattern, but this should be evaluated against variation between different families and households."
This is more sociologically precise.
Social differentiation
AQA's second core theme is social differentiation, power and stratification.
This means students should consider whether overall patterns conceal differences between groups.
When evaluating evidence on domestic labour, ask:
Is this an overall average?
Does it apply equally across society?
Are different types of households represented?
Are important differences hidden by the headline figure?
An aggregate pattern is not necessarily a description of every individual household.
Domestic labour and power
AQA places gender roles, domestic labour and power relationships together in the same specification statement.
The three ideas are therefore closely connected.
The division of work may raise questions about:
who performs particular responsibilities
whether arrangements are equal
whose preferences influence the arrangement
whether different family members have equal influence.
However, detailed analysis of domestic power belongs in the next lesson, how power operates within families [Power relationships within families].
For this lesson, the important point is that the division of work can have a power dimension and should not necessarily be analysed only in terms of task allocation.
Equality of tasks is not necessarily equality of power
A household could appear to have a balanced division of tasks while still containing unequal power relationships.
Likewise, evidence of an unequal division of tasks does not by itself tell sociologists exactly why that arrangement exists.
This distinction matters:
division of domestic labour concerns how work is distributed.
power relationships concern inequalities in influence or control within family relationships.
The concepts overlap, but they should not be treated as identical.
Consensus approaches to domestic roles
AQA requires students to understand the significance of consensus theories.
A consensus approach emphasises:
cooperation
shared interests
social order.
Applied broadly to domestic labour, it may focus on how family members cooperate and organise responsibilities.
From this perspective, different roles do not automatically prove conflict.
Family members might understand different responsibilities as part of an agreed arrangement.
Conflict approaches to domestic roles
A conflict approach instead emphasises:
inequality
power
different interests.
Applied to domestic labour, it encourages questions such as:
Does one person perform a greater share of work?
Who benefits from the arrangement?
Do all family members have the same interests?
Does an apparently cooperative arrangement conceal inequality?
This provides an important counterpoint to consensus explanations.
Again, the specification establishes the general theoretical perspective but does not provide a named conflict theory of domestic labour.
Consensus and conflict compared
Consensus interpretation | Conflict interpretation |
Emphasises cooperation | Emphasises competing interests |
May focus on how responsibilities are coordinated | May focus on unequal burdens |
Does not assume role differences are necessarily unequal | Questions whether different roles benefit everyone equally |
Gives attention to shared arrangements | Gives attention to power and inequality |
Neither interpretation should simply be assumed correct.
Evidence about what family members actually do, and how they experience the arrangement, matters.
Gender roles and identity
AQA's core theme of socialisation, culture and identity also allows students to connect gendered family roles with wider understandings of gender.
Family roles may form part of people's social identities and relationships.
However, this lesson should remain focused on domestic arrangements rather than introducing additional Culture and Identity content outside the Families and Households requirement.
The important point is that gender roles can be sociologically examined as part of wider patterns of socialisation and identity.
Choice and gender roles
A social action interpretation may emphasise that people make choices about domestic arrangements.
However, simply saying that "people choose their roles" does not provide a complete sociological explanation.
Students should ask:
Are all choices made under the same circumstances?
Do wider social expectations matter?
Do people have equal opportunities?
Is there evidence that choices form wider gendered patterns?
This helps avoid an excessively individualistic explanation.
Unequal outcomes do not automatically reveal motives
Suppose evidence shows one family member performs considerably more domestic labour.
This establishes an unequal outcome.
It does not automatically tell us:
why the arrangement exists
whether it was consciously chosen
how each person interprets it
whether it has changed
what wider influences contributed.
Further evidence would be necessary.
This distinction is useful when evaluating sociological research.
How can domestic labour be researched?
AQA requires sociological methods and research design to be integrated into substantive topic study.
Researchers might use either quantitative or qualitative approaches to investigate domestic labour.
Quantitative evidence
Quantitative data are numerical.
They could be used to measure aspects such as:
how frequently responsibilities are performed
how much time individuals spend on domestic work
differences between categories of respondents
change across time.
These are examples of possible measures, not claims about actual patterns.
Strengths of quantitative evidence
Quantitative evidence may help sociologists:
identify broad patterns
compare groups
compare periods
assess the extent of differences.
This may be particularly useful when testing whether domestic labour is systematically gendered rather than relying on individual examples.
Limitations of quantitative evidence
Numerical measures may oversimplify domestic work.
For example, counting tasks may not reveal:
the time they take
how demanding they are
how responsibility is experienced
why family members divide work in that way.
Researchers therefore need to think carefully about operationalisation, meaning how an idea is turned into something measurable.
The specification requires attention to research design and its strengths and limitations throughout topic study.
Qualitative evidence
Qualitative data provide non-numerical information about meanings and experiences.
They may help sociologists investigate:
how family members understand their roles
whether they perceive arrangements as fair
how responsibilities are negotiated
how arrangements change.
Qualitative evidence therefore links particularly well with social action explanations.
Limitations of qualitative evidence
Detailed accounts from a small number of participants may reveal considerable depth.
However, those accounts do not automatically establish:
how common the pattern is
whether it applies across society
whether another group would report the same experience.
Qualitative evidence can therefore complement, rather than necessarily replace, quantitative evidence.
Comparing quantitative and qualitative evidence
Quantitative evidence | Qualitative evidence |
Shows numerical patterns | Explores meanings and experiences |
Can measure differences | Can investigate why arrangements exist |
Useful for wider comparisons | Useful for detailed understanding |
May simplify complex responsibilities | May be harder to generalise from |
Can show whether a gender pattern exists | Can explore how people interpret that pattern |
A strong evaluation considers which evidence best answers the particular sociological question.
Researching both members of a relationship
When studying domestic labour, another methodological issue is whose account is being collected.
Different family members may interpret the same arrangement differently.
If research asks only one person, the evidence may provide only that person's perspective.
Therefore, when evaluating evidence, ask:
Who was studied?
Whose account is missing?
Are different viewpoints compared?
Is behaviour measured directly or self-reported?
This follows from the specification's requirement to consider research design, rather than from a named study.
Self-reported domestic labour
If participants are asked how much domestic work they perform, the data depend on their own accounts.
Sociologists should consider whether:
participants remember accurately
everyone defines tasks in the same way
people interpret "sharing equally" consistently.
These are methodological considerations rather than claims that respondents necessarily provide inaccurate answers.
Observation of domestic labour
Observation could potentially provide evidence of behaviour rather than relying only on participants' descriptions.
However, researching family life through observation may involve practical and ethical difficulties because the research concerns private domestic settings.
The specification requires students to consider practical, ethical and theoretical issues in sociological research.
Evidence of change
If sociologists claim that domestic labour has changed over time, comparable evidence is needed from different periods.
Students should ask:
Are the same concepts being measured?
Are the groups being compared similar?
Has the method changed?
Is the apparent change large?
Are there areas of continuity as well?
Without comparable evidence, claims about change may be weak.
Attitudes and behaviour are not the same
When examining gender roles, researchers may collect evidence about people's attitudes towards how work should be divided.
This is not necessarily the same as evidence about what people actually do.
A strong sociological analysis distinguishes:
beliefs about domestic roles
from
patterns of domestic behaviour.
Evidence of changing attitudes therefore does not automatically prove that domestic arrangements have changed to the same extent.
Evaluating explanations of gendered domestic labour
A useful evaluation framework is to ask the following questions.
Does the explanation fit the evidence?
The theory must explain the pattern actually found.
Does it explain why the pattern is gendered?
Simply describing who does what is not an explanation.
Does it recognise social structure?
Domestic arrangements occur within wider social circumstances.
Does it recognise social action?
Family members may negotiate and respond differently.
Does it account for diversity?
One explanation may not apply equally to all families.
Does it recognise power?
Different responsibilities may be connected to inequalities within relationships.
Does it explain change?
If evidence shows domestic roles changing, the explanation must account for that change.
Is the research evidence strong?
Consider how domestic work was measured and whose experiences were included.
Avoiding biological explanations unsupported by the specification
The specification requires sociological explanations of gender roles and domestic labour.
Students should therefore keep the focus sociological.
Do not replace sociological analysis with unsupported claims that particular domestic roles are naturally determined by sex.
Avoid assuming unequal means unfair
A sociologist may identify an unequal distribution of domestic work.
Whether participants regard that distribution as fair is a separate question requiring evidence.
This distinction is important because:
objective measures can identify distribution
qualitative evidence can investigate meanings.
A strong answer can separate what the arrangement is from how it is interpreted.
Avoid assuming perceived fairness means equality
The reverse is also true.
If participants report that they are satisfied with an arrangement, this does not by itself establish that domestic work is equally distributed.
Sociologists can investigate both:
distribution
interpretation.
Neither should automatically be substituted for the other.
Domestic labour as a link between structure and power
AQA's decision to place gender roles, domestic labour and power relationships together makes this an important synoptic area.
Domestic labour can be analysed as:
a pattern of behaviour
a gender relationship
a possible expression of wider social structure
something negotiated through social action
an issue potentially connected with power.
This is why the next lesson on Power relationships within families is a natural continuation of the topic.
How to apply an Item
Suppose an Item states:
In one study, partners report that they increasingly share some household responsibilities. However, the researchers find that other responsibilities remain unequally divided, and family members disagree about whether their arrangement is equal.
A strong response could use the Item to analyse:
change and continuity, because some responsibilities changed while others did not
gender roles, if the Item identifies a gender pattern
social action, because family members interpret the arrangement differently
research methods, because self-reported views may differ from measured behaviour
power, if unequal responsibility is connected to influence within the relationship.
The Item should be used throughout the analysis rather than mentioned once.
Evaluating claims of equality
If evidence suggests domestic labour is becoming more equally divided, do not automatically conclude that complete equality has been achieved.
Ask:
Which responsibilities are included?
How is equality measured?
Are all households represented?
Is this a change in behaviour or attitudes?
Are there areas of continuity?
Does equal task-sharing necessarily mean equal power?
This produces a much more developed evaluation.
Evaluating claims of persistent inequality
Likewise, if evidence identifies inequality, do not assume nothing has changed.
Ask:
Has the scale of inequality changed?
Are some responsibilities more equally shared than others?
Does the pattern differ between households?
What explanations account for both continuity and change?
Good Sociology rarely requires an all-or-nothing conclusion.
Bringing the topic together
The central sociological relationship can be summarised as:
gender roles → division of domestic labour → possible questions of inequality and power
but this is not necessarily a one-way causal sequence.
Gender roles may shape domestic arrangements, while people's experiences within families may also influence understandings of gender.
Wider social structures and individual action may interact.
A developed explanation therefore considers:
structure
action
socialisation
social change
family diversity
power
evidence.
Building an examination argument đź§
AQA assesses students' knowledge and understanding, application, and analysis and evaluation of sociological theories, concepts and evidence. The specification requires these skills to be applied across topic areas.
For an extended response on gender roles and domestic labour, a strong argument could:
Define gender roles and domestic labour.
Identify the pattern shown by valid evidence.
Explain whether the evidence indicates equality, inequality or a mixed pattern.
Develop a structural explanation of gendered domestic arrangements.
Link gender roles to socialisation where appropriate.
Evaluate structural explanations using social action and negotiation.
Consider consensus and conflict interpretations.
Examine family diversity and whether one pattern applies to all households.
Consider the relationship between domestic labour and power.
Evaluate the methods used to obtain the evidence.
Consider both change and continuity.
Reach a reasoned judgement rather than claiming domestic arrangements are either completely equal or completely unequal.
đź“Ś Exam tip:Â The strongest responses separate three questions: Who performs domestic labour? Why is it divided in that way? What does the arrangement tell us about equality and power?
Key Words 🔑
Key word | Student-friendly definition | How it may be used in an exam |
Gender roles | Socially organised patterns and expectations associated with gender. | Explain whether roles within families are organised according to gender. |
Domestic labour | Work involved in maintaining family and household life. | Identify and analyse how domestic responsibilities are distributed. |
Division of domestic labour | The way domestic responsibilities are allocated between family or household members. | Compare more equal and unequal domestic arrangements. |
Socialisation | The process through which individuals learn culture and social expectations. | Explain how wider gender expectations may become connected to family roles. |
Social structure | The organised social patterns and relationships within wider society. | Explain broader social influences on domestic arrangements. |
Social action | An approach emphasising people's meanings, interactions and actions. | Examine how family members negotiate and interpret domestic roles. |
Social differentiation | Differences between individuals and social groups. | Evaluate whether one pattern applies equally to all households. |
Power | The capacity to influence relationships, decisions or outcomes. | Link the division of labour to inequalities within family relationships. |
Quantitative data | Numerical evidence used to identify or compare patterns. | Measure the extent of differences in domestic work. |
Qualitative data | Non-numerical evidence about meanings and experiences. | Examine how family members interpret domestic arrangements. |
Common Mistakes ⚠️
Mistake: Assuming the specification gives a fixed pattern of domestic labour
Why this is incorrect: AQA requires students to understand gender roles and domestic labour, but the supplied specification does not provide statistics or named evidence establishing one compulsory empirical pattern.
How to improve: Base claims about who does domestic work on valid sociological evidence supplied in your course materials or the examination Item.
Mistake: Describing who performs tasks without explaining why
Why this is incorrect: This demonstrates knowledge of a pattern but not a sociological explanation.
How to improve: Connect the pattern to concepts such as socialisation, social structure, social action or power where the evidence supports the connection.
Mistake: Assuming family structure determines domestic roles
Why this is incorrect: Households with similar structures may organise responsibilities differently.
How to improve: Distinguish what type of household it is from how relationships and responsibilities operate within it.
Mistake: Treating gender roles as automatically fixed
Why this is incorrect: AQA requires attention to contemporary social processes and social change.
How to improve: Consider evidence of both change and continuity rather than assuming roles are permanently fixed.
Mistake: Assuming unequal domestic labour proves unequal power
Why this is incorrect: The division of labour and power are related specification areas, but they are not identical concepts.
How to improve: Explain the distribution of work first, then examine whether additional evidence demonstrates inequalities in power.
Mistake: Assuming equal task-sharing proves complete equality
Why this is incorrect: Task allocation is only one dimension of family relationships.
How to improve: Keep the distinction between domestic labour and the wider power relationships examined in the next lesson.
Mistake: Assuming personal choice is a complete explanation
Why this is incorrect: Individual decisions occur within wider social structures and patterns of socialisation.
How to improve: Explain how structure and social action may interact.
Mistake: Treating attitudes as evidence of behaviour
Why this is incorrect: What people believe about domestic equality may differ from how responsibilities are actually distributed.
How to improve: Check exactly what the research measures before drawing a conclusion.
Exam-Style Questions ✍️
Questions
1. Which one of the following refers to the way household responsibilities are allocated between people?
A. Family diversity
B. Division of domestic labour
C. Social mobility
D. Life course
[1 mark]
2. Define the term domestic labour.
[2 marks]
3. Explain one reason why a sociologist might use qualitative data when investigating the division of domestic labour.
[4 marks]
4. Explain two ways in which social structure may influence gender roles within families.
[6 marks]
5. Read Item A and answer the question that follows.
Item A
In some households, family members describe domestic responsibilities as the result of personal choices and negotiation. However, sociologists may find similar gendered patterns across many households, suggesting that wider social expectations may also influence the way responsibilities are divided.
Using material from Item A, analyse two differences between structural and social action explanations of gendered domestic labour.
[10 marks]
6. Read Item B and answer the question that follows.
Item B
A researcher asks couples how equally they share domestic labour. Most participants describe their arrangements as fair. However, when the researcher records the frequency with which different responsibilities are performed, some couples show substantial differences in the amount of domestic work carried out by each partner.
Using material from Item B and your knowledge, analyse two issues sociologists should consider when using evidence to assess equality in domestic labour.
[10 marks]
7. Explain two ways in which conflict and consensus interpretations may differ in their analysis of domestic arrangements.
[6 marks]
8. Evaluate sociological explanations of gendered patterns in the division of domestic labour.
[20 marks]
Answers and indicative mark scheme
Question 1
Answer: B. Division of domestic labour
Award 1 mark for the correct answer.
Question 2
Award up to 2 marks for an answer recognising domestic labour as:
work or responsibilities
involved in maintaining family or household life.
Question 3
Award up to 4 marks for a developed explanation.
Indicative content:
Qualitative evidence can explore the meanings family members attach to their roles.
It may show how domestic arrangements are negotiated.
It can investigate whether individuals regard an arrangement as fair or unequal.
This information may not be revealed through numerical measures alone.
A developed response should connect the methodological point directly to domestic labour.
Question 4
Award up to 3 marks for each developed way.
Indicative content may include:
Wider socialisation may influence expectations surrounding gender roles.
Wider patterns of gender differentiation may provide a social context for domestic arrangements.
Families exist within social structures rather than making decisions completely independently from society.
Wider social and economic circumstances may influence opportunities and constraints where supporting evidence establishes the relationship.
Question 5
Strong responses should use Item A directly.
Social action
Item A refers to "personal choices and negotiation".
Social action approaches emphasise individuals' meanings and interactions.
They can explain why different households may organise responsibilities differently.
Structural explanation
Item A refers to "similar gendered patterns across many households".
Structural explanations look for wider social influences.
Social expectations or socialisation may help explain why individual cases form a broader pattern.
Analysis
Higher-level responses may conclude that social action is useful for explaining variation between households, while structural explanations can account for recurring social patterns.
Question 6
Strong responses could develop two of the following.
Perception versus behaviour
Participants describe arrangements as fair.
Recorded behaviour nevertheless shows differences in domestic work.
Perceptions of equality should therefore not automatically be treated as measurements of equal distribution.
Operationalisation
Researchers need to decide how domestic labour and equality will be measured.
Counting frequency may not capture every aspect of the work involved.
Different forms of evidence
Self-reported qualitative evidence provides information about meanings.
Behavioural or quantitative measures may provide evidence about distribution.
The two types answer different questions.
Whose perspective is included
Different partners may interpret the same arrangement differently.
Evidence should therefore be evaluated according to who was studied.
Question 7
Award up to 3 marks for each developed difference.
Indicative content:
A consensus interpretation emphasises cooperation and shared interests, whereas a conflict interpretation focuses on inequality and competing interests.
Consensus approaches may examine the coordination of family responsibilities, while conflict approaches may question whether one member bears a greater burden.
Conflict explanations give particular attention to power, whereas consensus explanations place greater emphasis on agreement and social order.
Question 8
A strong extended response should combine knowledge, application, analysis and evaluation.
Indicative AO1 content
Students may explain:
gender roles
domestic labour
division of domestic labour
socialisation
social structure
social action
consensus and conflict
social change
family diversity
power
quantitative and qualitative evidence.
Indicative analysis and evaluation
Developed responses might argue that:
Structural explanations can connect recurring gendered domestic arrangements with wider social patterns.
Socialisation may provide a sociological framework for explaining gender expectations.
Structural explanations are useful if similar patterns appear across many families rather than only in isolated cases.
However, structural explanations may become deterministic if they imply every family follows the same arrangement.
Social action approaches emphasise negotiation, meanings and individual responses.
This can explain why households facing similar circumstances may organise domestic work differently.
An explanation based entirely on personal choice may nevertheless ignore wider social expectations and constraints.
Consensus approaches emphasise cooperation and shared arrangements.
Conflict approaches draw attention to unequal workloads, different interests and possible links with power.
Family diversity means one domestic pattern should not automatically be generalised to every household.
Evidence of changing roles should be evaluated against evidence of continuity.
Quantitative evidence may identify the scale of unequal or equal divisions but can oversimplify complex responsibilities.
Qualitative evidence may reveal meanings and negotiations but may be less useful for establishing the prevalence of a pattern.
Attitudes towards equality and the actual distribution of work should not automatically be treated as the same thing.
Domestic labour and power are connected but should not be treated as identical concepts.
Judgement
A well-supported conclusion could argue that gendered domestic arrangements are best understood by combining wider structural explanations with attention to social action. Structural approaches can explain why gender patterns may occur across families, while social action approaches explain negotiation and variation between households. Judgements about equality must also be based on appropriate evidence and should recognise that the division of domestic work is only one part of the wider issue of power and inequality within families [Power relationships within families].
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