Gender Roles and relationships within families.
Gender Roles and relationships within families.
Different sociologists have had different views to whether conjugal roles have become equal. Researchers have measured different aspects of equality in conjugal roles. Some have focused on the division of labour in the home. They have examined the allocation of responsibility for housework between husband and wife and the amount of time spent by spouses on particular tasks. Others have tried to measure the distribution of power within marriage. Willmott and Young, and Gillian Dunne are amongst those who have argued that conjugal roles are equal. However many sociologists such as Ann Oakley, have carried out research into the area of conjugal roles and have found little evidence that couples share equal division of domestic tasks.
Willmott and Young tend to agree that conjugal roles have become more equal. During the 70’s they announced the arrival of the symmetrical family, a family where husbands and wives were similar in their roles. In the home the couple ‘shared their work and shared their time’. Husbands were thought to be helping with the housework, childcare and decision making more often. Willmott and Young discovered that 72% of husbands helped with these household tasks. They thought that the change from separate to joint roles resulted mainly from the withdrawal of the wife from her relationships with female kin, and the drawing of the husband into the family circle.
Ann Oakley is one sociologist who criticises this view of Willmott and Young. In
1974 Oakley pointed out that included in this 72% figure were husbands who did very little, only had to perform one household chore a week.
During the 1970’s she collected information on 40 married women who had one child or more under the age of 5 and were themselves aged between 20 and 30. Half of her sample was working class and half was middle class. She found greater equality for domestic tasks in the
Different sociologists have had different views to whether conjugal roles have become equal. Researchers have measured different aspects of equality in conjugal roles. Some have focused on the division of labour in the home. They have examined the allocation of responsibility for housework between husband and wife and the amount of time spent by spouses on particular tasks. Others have tried to measure the distribution of power within marriage. Willmott and Young, and Gillian Dunne are amongst those who have argued that conjugal roles are equal. However many sociologists such as Ann Oakley, have carried out research into the area of conjugal roles and have found little evidence that couples share equal division of domestic tasks.
Willmott and Young tend to agree that conjugal roles have become more equal. During the 70’s they announced the arrival of the symmetrical family, a family where husbands and wives were similar in their roles. In the home the couple ‘shared their work and shared their time’. Husbands were thought to be helping with the housework, childcare and decision making more often. Willmott and Young discovered that 72% of husbands helped with these household tasks. They thought that the change from separate to joint roles resulted mainly from the withdrawal of the wife from her relationships with female kin, and the drawing of the husband into the family circle.
Ann Oakley is one sociologist who criticises this view of Willmott and Young. In
1974 Oakley pointed out that included in this 72% figure were husbands who did very little, only had to perform one household chore a week.
During the 1970’s she collected information on 40 married women who had one child or more under the age of 5 and were themselves aged between 20 and 30. Half of her sample was working class and half was middle class. She found greater equality for domestic tasks in the