gender roles

Question 1

parsons instrumental and expressive roles

Answer 1

the husband has the instrumental role: breadwinner
the wife has an expressive role: homemaker

young and willmott(1962) say the roles are not shared and swapped nowadays

Question 2

joint and segregated conjugal roles

Answer 2

bott(1957) distinguished two types of conjugal roles:
- segregated conjugal roles- reflect parsons ideas
- joint conjugal roles- couples share tasks and spend leisure time together

Question 3

the symmetrical family

Answer 3

young and willmott take a ‘march of progress’ view on the family. family life is gradually improving for all its members

Question 4

the symmetrical family criticism

Answer 4

feminist sociologists reject the march of progress and say that very little has actually changed: men and women still remain unequal in the family and roles are still defined by gender

Question 5

oakley’s sociology of housework (1974)

Answer 5

argues the idea of a symmetrical family is a myth
found that 72% of men in their research ‘helped’ with housework other than washing up during the week - oakley pointed out that this could be ironing one shirt

Question 6

ward et al (1990)

Answer 6

supports oakley’s findings
the distribution of labour is still very gendered
42% of men said they did less than their fair share

Question 7

functionalist view
gershuny (1994)

Answer 7

wives who weren’t employed did 83% of all housework
wives who worked part time did 82%
wives who worked full time did 73%
explains there has been a gradual change