AS Unit 1 Acquiring Culture; Family and Culture Week 5: Conjugal Roles.
CONJUGAL ROLES
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Transcript of CONJUGAL ROLES
CONJUGAL ROLES
THE DOMESTIC DIVISION OF LABOUR
Parsons (Functionalist)
He argues that there is a clear division of labour between spouses based on biological differences
He claimed that these divisions are beneficial to men women children and wider society.
PARSONS Women have the
expressive role geared towards homemaking and childcare.
Men hold the instrumental role geared towards work and being the breadwinner.
Parsons sees these roles as natural
WHAT ARE CONJUGAL ROLES?
Conjugal roles are the roles of the man and woman [husband and wife] in the homeElizabeth Bott (1957) Identified two different types of conjugal roles
that people can have: joint conjugal roles
When husbands and wives share housework and childcare, decisions and leisure time they have
segregated conjugal roles. When husbands and wives do not share
housework and childcare, decisions and leisure time they have
JOINT AND SEGREGATED CONJUGAL ROLES SEGREGATED
CONJUGAL ROLES-where the couple have separate roles
male breadwinner female
homemaker/carer JOINT CONJUGAL
ROLES – where the couple share tasks and earning money
WILLMOTT AND YOUNG (1960)
Identified a pattern of segregated roles in Bethnal Green.
Men went to work and spent leisure time at the pub
Women stayed at home and spent time with female relatives.
They also identified the modified extended family
THE SYMMETRICAL FAMILY
Willmott and Young take a march of progress view- this means things gradually improving
By 1973 they argued that the trend towards the symmetrical family (joint conjugal roles) was underway with men helping with housework and women going out to work.
WHO USUALLY DOES THE HOUSEWORK?
MULTI-TASKING
DOMESTIC DIVISION OF LABOUR AND THE ‘NEW MAN’
CHANGING ROLES!!
YOUNG AND WILMOTT STUDY
Young and Willmott saw the rise in this new type of symetrical family occurring because of….. Changes in the position of women Geographical mobility- couples moving
away from the community they grew up in
New technology- labour saving devices Better standards of living
CRITICISMS OF YOUNG AND WILMOTT’S STUDY
Ann Oakley (Radical Feminist) Inadequate methodology ‘help for at least once a week with any
household jobs?’ “a man who helps with the children
once a week would be included in this %, so would (presumably) a man who ironed his own trousers on a Saturday afternoon.”
THE FEMINIST VIEW They reject the
march of progress view
Little has really changed in terms of gender roles in the family
THE FEMINIST VIEW Ann Oakley (1974)
criticises Willmott and Young
They said men do more based on them doing one task a week - like taking the children for a walk
This is not symmetry!
ANN OAKLEY Oakley found that
husbands were more likely to help with childcare than housework
Boulton (1983) found that W&Y exaggerated men’s contribution by looking at tasks and not responsibility- which was mostly down to women
INEQUALITY IN THE HOME
Boulton (1983) Boulton studied 50 young married
mothers in London, none of them had full-time jobs.
Boulton claimed that men will help out with certain bits of childcare such as nappy changing although women still have primary responsibility for the children.
INEQUALITY IN THE HOME
Boulton’s study revealed the following:
Amount of Help From Husband
%
Extensive help with childcare 18% Moderate help with childcare 36%
Minimal help with childcare 46%
What conclusions can be drawn from this data?
HETHERINGTON AND WARDE (1993)
Support previous findings- women still doing most domestic tasks.
But some evidence of a slight change in attitude of younger men.
However women are still doing the bulk of household chores …….
THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE HOUSEWIFE ROLE - OAKLEY In the 19th century the
rise of industrialisation saw women gradually excluded from paid work
the housewife role came about and remains women’s primary role
When they do work women are concentrated in low paid ‘caring’ type jobs- an extension of the housewife role.
THE IMPACT OF PAID WORK ¾ of married and
cohabiting women are economically active
But is the new man doing his bit of the housework..
Or are women just shouldering a double burden
GERSHUNY (1994) Found that working women did less
housework (full time workers did 73%) Men were taking more responsibility
but for different tasks e.g. DIY Sullivan (2000) agrees that men are
doing more. Crompton agrees too but she says this
is linked to how much women earn not a change in attitudes or values.
THE COMMERCIALISATION OF HOUSEWORK Silver and Schor -
Housework has become commercialised
Goods and services (ready meals microwaves etc) reduce the amount of time women have to spend doing housework
Also since women work they can afford to buy this stuff.
THE COMMERCIALISATION OF HOUSEWORK Evaluation: A lot of women
are poor and can’t actually afford to buy these services
It doesn’t say anything about sharing chores!
THE DUAL BURDEN
FEMINISTS ARGUE THAT….
Despite going to work women are still doing the bulk of unpaid work in the home
Ferri and Smith - found less than 4% of childcare carried out by men
Even unemployed men don’t do the housework- they have lost ‘masculine’ role so female role is to be avoided.
However some studies show unemployed men do more housework (Ramos 2003)
CHILDCARE Good quality
childcare is essential to working mums
This is not always available to working class families so women stay trapped in low paid part time jobs
Middle class couples often pay for nannies/cleaners etc
EMOTION WORK Women are more
likely to do jobs which are about managing emotions Teaching Nursing
This has been applied to the family
EMOTION WORKDuncombe and Marsden call it the triple shift paid work childcare &
housework Emotion work
‘Triple shift’
THE DARKSIDE OF THE FAMILY
Dobash and Dobash (1980) Radical feminists Interviewed female victims who had
left their abusive partners Many do not report most incidents
because of fear Patriarchal power
LESBIAN COUPLES (DUNNE 1999)
Lesbian couples have much more symmetrical relationships
They don’t have to follow ‘gender scripts’
Supports radical feminist view that heterosexual relationships are inevitably patriarchal
RESOURCES How are resources in the home shared out? Barrett and Macintosh (1991) found
men get more in domestic labour than they give back in financial support.
Support they do give comes with strings attached.
Men also likely to make decisions about spending on important items.
DECISION MAKING Pahl and Vogler (1993) found that pooling
resources was increasing but men still make the big financial decisions.
Edgell (1980) found that men make important decisions like changing jobs or moving house
Women make less important decisions like food and décor
Feminists say that these inequalities are a result of patriarchal society and gender role socialisation