couples-families and households

Parsons- domestic division of labour

functionalist model, clear division of labour between spouses, husband has an instrumental role where he is the breadwinner, wife has an expressive role where she is the homemaker.

division of labour is based on biological differences.

Criticisms of Parsons

Young and Willmott- men are increasingly involved in domestic tasks and more wives are wage earners.

Feminists- the division of labour is a social construct that benefits men.

Elizabeth Bott

two types of conjugal roles within a marriage:

segregated: couples have separate roles, a male breadwinner and female homemaker.

joint: couples share household and childcare, spend leisure time together.

Young and Willmott- patterns of segregated roles

he said segregated roles existed in traditional working-class extended families in Bethnal Green where males had a small role in the home, spent most of their time outside, women were full-time housewives.

Young and Willmott-march of progress

they take a march of progress view, where they see family life gradually improving, becoming more equal, they show a move from segregated roles to joint and the symmetrical family.

the roles of husbands and wives are much more similar because women work both part-time and full-time, and couples send leisure time together.

studying families in London they found the symmetrical family was more common among younger couples

this change has occurred because of changes in women’s position, new technology, higher standards of living etc.

Feminists

they argue little has changed as men and women remain unequal with women doing most of the housework.

this inequality stems from the fact that the family and society are patriarchal.

Ann Oakley

criticises Young and Willmott says they exaggerate their claims that the family is now symmetrical. eg. husbands claiming to help their wives at least once a week like making breakfast is not convincing evidence of symmetry.

Ann Oakley found only 15% of husbands had high level of participation in housework, and only 25% in childcare.

Mary Boulton

support Ann Oakley’s findings and fewer than 20% of husbands had a major role in childcare, and also says Young and Willmott exaggerate men’s contribution by looking at childcare tasks instead of responsibilities.

Alan Warde and Kevin Hetherington

they found that men would only carry out ‘feminine’ tasks when their partner isn’t around, but among younger men there was a change in attitude.

Gershuny-impact of paid work

women working full-time is leading to a more equal division of labour in the home, and found that these women did less domestic work.

Sullivan

analysed nationally representative data collected in 1975,1987, and 1997 found a trend towards women doing a smaller share of domestic work and men doing more.

she found an increase in the number of couples with an equal division of labour and that men were participating more in traditional womens tasks.