gendered division of labour and conjugal roles

division of labour in the family

refers to household chores and tasks and paid work divided by men and women

conjugal roles parsons (functionalist view)

parsons - In the traditional nuclear family, the roles of husbands and wives are segregated

• In the nuclear family, men an instrumental role - providing for the family financially

• Women - expressive role - providing primary socialization of the children and meeting the emotional needs of the family - warm bath theory

• parsons argues that the division of labour is based on biological differences, as women are more suited to the nurturing role and men - providers

conjugal roles - refers to the roles played by husband and wife within marriage

Elizabeth Bott - segregated conjugal roles - clear divisions of tasks

join conjugal roles - couples share tasks and spend leisure time together

The symmetrical family (joint conjugal roles) - young and Wilmot march of progress view

• March of Progress View - used questionnaires with families in London and found that families is becoming more equal and fair- things have improved for women

• women can now go to work

• Men now help with housework and childcare

• couples now share their leisure time instead of separately with work makers or female relatives

• pre-industrial family - family works as a unit of economic production

• the early industrial family - families move into towns and cities, and home/work are separated as men go out to work

• women rely on support from other female relatives - while female members bonded, men were excluded from the home and spent time in the pub instead

• symmetrical family - the modern nuclear family has less gender segregation than early industrial family

• reasons for these changes:

• Changes in the position of women

• Geographical mobility - more couples living away from the communities they grew up in

• labour saving devices

• higher standards of living

feminist perspective

• argues that despite some changes, the division of labour remains unequal

• women perform a dual burden - paid work and unpaid domestic work

• triple shift - Duncombe and Marsden - paid work , housework , emotional work

• Oakley (174) - criticised young and Willmott - finding very little evidence of symmetry - only 15% of husbands had a high level of participation in housework

• husbands are more likely to share the pleasurable tasks like childcare and taking an interest

• liberal feminism - divorce laws have been reformed to make them more equal

• radical believe laws aren’t enough - girls are socialised to believe that oppression and inequality are normal, so they accept the inequality.

reasons for changes in division of labour:

rise in female employment

Changing attitudes to gender inequality

Higher male unemployment

Richard reeves (family life today)

• we are halfway through a revolution in the interaction between gender roles and family

• roles in the family, such as stay-at-home dad, are becoming normalised

reasons for this:

• gender pay gap predicted to close by 2040

• 1/5 of women now earn more than their partner

• rise in pay for women - no longer economically dependent on men

• growth of the welfare state, such as benefits for kids

• rise in divorce, drop in first marriages, and rise in remarriages

• more same sex relationships

Dale Sotherton

• women have the responsibility of arranging quality time

explanations of domestic labour - Crompton and Lynnette

• cultural/ideological explanations:

• Kan - younger men do much more domestic work, which demonstrates that gender norms are changing

• dune/smart - lesbian couples have more symmetrical roles

material/economic explanations:

• Ramos found that unemployed men do as much housework as women when they work full time

• Gershuny - women working full time leads to a more equal division of labour

silver and Schorr - commercialisation of housework

• Two major economic developments that have lightened the burden of housework on women:

• housework is no longer commercialised - good; housewives would previously make themselves - now all mass produced and ready - ready meals , freezers - reduces the workload for women

• women now work - they can afford to buy such goods - argue that as a result of this the burden on women has lightened . Schor - goes as far to say such developments have led to the death of the housewife role.

• Criticisms - poorer women can’t afford expensive goods - just because the burden has lessened, doesn’t mean that labour is equally divided between men and women

personal life perspective

• smart - there is greater freedom for same sex couples to do what suits them as a couple as they do not have “gender scripts”