conjugal roles - not equal

Question 1

what are conjugal roles?

Answer 1

• Conjugal roles are the roles carried out by both people in either a married or cohabiting relationship
• There are segregated conjugal roles And joint conjugal roles

Question 2

what are segregated and joint conjugal roles?

Answer 2

segregated - situation in which male and female have distinctively different area of responsibility toward family

joint -

Question 3

how might conjugal roles be unequal?

Answer 3

• money
• decision making
• childcare
• housework

Question 4

parson’s view on conjugal roles

Answer 4

there are segregated roles in the family because these are ‘natural’
men have ‘instrumental roles’ and women have ‘expressive roles’
argues that men and women simply have naturally different roles and that both are needed for the family to run in a smooth fashion

Question 5

Pahl

money

Answer 5

• Identified various systems of money management:
• ‘housekeeping allowance system’ where the husbands give their wives a fixed sum of money for housekeeping expenses.

disagree - ‘pooling system’ - both equal responsible + controlling money

Question 6

Edgell

Answer 6

Found that women make decisions about interior decoration, children’s clothes, food and household items. These decisions were frequent and not seen as important.

Men had main say when moving house, buying car etc. These decisions were infrequent and seen as important.

to counter - Leighton

Question 7

Leighton

Answer 7

found that when men become unemployed, their power to influence the family and make decisions is challenged.

to contrast edgell

Question 8

Hardill

Answer 8

• studied 30 dual career professional couples and found that middle class wives generally deferred to their husbands in major decisions such as where to live, size of mortgage, buying cars etc.
• she argues that mens careers take priority when deciding on mortgage - be closer to work etc.

Question 9

Oakley

conjugal roles - not equal

Answer 9

full-time domestic labour means that the wife is economically dependent on the male breadwinner

Question 10

Domestic Housework names

Answer 10

• Lader- If both genders are in paid work then, on average, women do 21 hours a week on housework men do 12 hours.
• Leonard- Women underestimate how long they spend on housework
• Dryden- Studied 17 professional couples and found that most professional couples do not share housework equally. Women do the most.
• Warde: Women are 30 times more likely to do the washing
• Office for National statistics - women spend on average 2.5 hours a day on housework. Men spend 1 hour

Question 11

British Household Panel Survey

Answer 11

• Men over reported their housework compared to women
• Men on average completed 1.2 hours of housework a week whereas women completed 49 hours

2006-2011

Question 12

boulton

Answer 12

Found that fewer than 20% of husbands had a major role in childcare

A father might help with specific tasks, but it was almost always the mother who was responsible for the child’s security and well-being

Question 13

Delphy and Leonard

Answer 13

men contribute the least to family life but gain the most.

Question 14

ferri and smith

Answer 14

dual burden

Question 15

dunscombe and marsden

Answer 15

Found that women were required not only to carry a dual burden but a triple shift - domestic labour, paid work and emotion work