Conjugal Roles

Question 1

Wilmott & Young: “The Symmetrical Family”

Answer 1

• Neo-functionalists who did structured interviews and surveys investigating the division of household labour
• Found that in the 1950s, labour was segregated by gender
• However, by the 1970s more women were employed and more men did domestic work
• 72% of men claimed to help their wives with housework

Question 2

Ann Oakley: “The Housewife”

Answer 2

• Liberal feminist who did unstructured interviews with mothers of children under 5
• Found that women saw housework as their responsibility and received little or no help from their husbands
• Criticised W&Y as men only had to perform one chore per week to qualify as helping their wives

Question 3

Gershuny

Answer 3

Although women do the majority in housework, women in full time employment do less
- Men do more housework to compensate, despite this being far from symmetrical
- Conjugal roles will eventually become equal despite “lagged adaptation” on men’s behalf

Question 4

Arlie Hochschild

Duncombe & Marsden

Bernard

Answer 4

• As well as working in employment, women still shoulder most of domestic work with little help from their husbands
• This is known as the dual burden of labour
• As well as employment and domestic work, women suffer the burden of emotion work
  This results in an unequal triple shift of labour
• Due to the unequal burden of labour, women are growing dissatisfied with marriage
• Women suffer from emotional loneliness as a result of being expected to perform all of the emotion work

Question 5

Pahl & Vogler

Kan

Answer 5

• Overtime there has been a decrease in male breadwinners giving their wives an allowance, and an increase in couples pooling money together
• Shared household income means equal power between couples
• Couples with the highest marital satisfaction had joint finances, often with women having the most control
• More women are in full time employment than in the past
• When women work full time, they have more bargaining power
• Thus, household roles are becoming more equal as men and women have equal power

Question 6

Stephen Edgell

Answer 6

• Interviewed 38 “middle class” couples on the frequency and importance of decision making they each handle
• Although women make more decisions than men on a day-to-day basis, men still have the most power over high importance decisions (eg moving house)