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The divisions of labour - Are couples becoming more equal? (Functionalist…
The divisions of labour
- Are couples becoming more equal?
Feminist view
Reject 'march of project view'
Say little has changed
Men and women remain unequal within the fam
See it as inequality stemming from how family and society are male-dominated
Women occupy subordinate and dependant role within the family and wider society
Ann Oakley (1974)
Critises Y&W
Argues claims are exaggerated
Little evidence of symmetry
Men only help out once a week
Her own research
Found some evidence of males doing work
Found no evidence of trend towards symmetry
Only 15% husbands had a high level of PP in house
Only 25% males had high PP in childcare
Mary Boulton (1983)
Found <20% of husbands had a major role in childcare
says Y&W exaggerated by looking at tasks not responsibilities
Dad might help with some tasks but mother is generally responsible
Warde and Hetherington (1993)
Gender typing remained strong
Women 30x more likely to be last person washing
Males more likely to share childcare than housework
Only the nicer bits
Most couples defined males role as 'taking an interest'
A good father = play w child in the evening and 'take them off her hands' on sunday morning
This could mean mothers lost the rewards of childcare
e.g playing with children
so they were left with more time for housework
Functionalist view
March of progress view
Parsons
Instrumental and expressive roles
Traditional nuclear family, roles = segregated. Male have instrumental role and women have expressive
Instrumental role - providing for the family financially and being the 'breadwinner"
Expressive role - primary sociolisation of the children and meeting the family's emotional needs; a homemaker, fulltime housewife rather than earning a wage
Evaluation
Young and Willmott (1962) say men now take a greater share of domestic tasks and wives are becoming wage earners
Feminist sociologists argue that the division of labour is not natural and only benefits men
Conjugal roles
Elizabeth Bott (1957)
Segregated conjugal roles
Where the couple have separated roles, as in Parsons' gender roles, also, their leisure time tends to be spent separately
Joint conjugal roles
Couple shares tasks such as housework and childcare and spend their leisure time together
Young and Willmott
Found a pattern of segregated conjugal roles in their study of traditional working-class extended families in Bethnal green, East London, in the 1950s
Men were the breadwinners; they played little part in home life and spent their leisure time with workmates in pubs and working men's clubs
Women were full-time housewives with the sole responsibility for housework and childcare, helped by their female relatives. The limited leisure time women had was also spent with femle kin
The Symmetrical family
Young and Willmott
Take a 'march of progress view' of the history of the family, they see family life as gradually improving for all its members, becoming more equal and democratic
They argue that there has been a long-term trend away from segregated conjugal roles and towards joint conjugal roles and the symetrical family
Symmetrical family
Roles more equal
Women work, even if part time
Men help with housework and childcare
Couples spend leisure time together
Study of families in London
Found symmetrical family more common in younger couples
Who are geo and socially isolated and more affluent
Y&W see the rise in symmetrical family due to social changes
Changes in women's position
Geo mobility
New tech
Higher standards of living
Many factors interlinked
Married women bring second wage = increase standard of living
Means couple can afford new tech that reduces labour
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