Examine the factors affecting power relationships and the division of labour between couples Domestic labour is housework, childcare and paid work. In 1955, Parsons suggested that the husband and wife have different roles within the family; the man’s role was named instrumental. He is expected to achieve success at work and financially support the family whereas the wife was expected to look after the house, raise the children emotionally and cook. This was named the expressive role. Parsons said that these roles made things ‘nice and functional’.
The Domestic Division of Labour refers to the roles that men and women play in relation to housework, childcare and paid work. Parsons (1995) argues that in a traditional nuclear family the roles of husband and wife are segregated, in his view the husband plays an instrumental role geared towards achieving success at work so he can provide financially, being the breadwinner. The woman has an expressive role geared towards primary socialisation of children and meeting the emotional needs. Parsons said that these roles made things ‘nice and functional’ for society. He also argued division of labour is based on biological differences between men and women, as women are naturally suited towards nurturing role and men to a powerful role.
However, there is more statistics indicating that families are in decline. First, the “traditional” family, which used to be defined as, the husband being the breadwinner and the wife being a full-time “homemaker”, has declined from 66 percent to 29 percent in 1972-2007 (Benokraitis, n.d, 3). This could be because of the changing dynamics of a family. For example, the rates of single parenthood are rising and each single parent has to be the breadwinner and “homemaker” of the family. Also, some adults do not end up getting married, almost 19 million Americans (Benokraitis, n.d., 3).
350,000 women were in unions in 1914, but 600,000 by 1918. Although many women found themselves earning good wages for the first time during the war, women were always paid less than men, and were not promoted as often as their male colleagues. The war did lead to real changes in social attitudes. Women had more freedom after the war. Their clothing became much simpler, with shorter skirts and sleeves.
These two articles work together to show how balancing family, marriage, and work is very difficult whether it be unrealistic expectations of co-parenting or mismanaging anger. In Hope Edelman’s “The Myth of Co-Parenting: How It Was Supposed to Be. How it Was” she expresses vividly how she feels about her misinterpretation of married life. Before she was married to John, she had a “vague assumption” (Edelman 284) that co-parenting was an attainable goal. Her idea of co-parenting was “If I’m going to contribute half of the income, then he’ll contribute half of the housework and child care” (Edelman 284).
Gender roles and relationships have become more equal in modern family life? Some sociologists would argue that a number of changes have taken place in gender roles and relationships within families. On the other hand there are some sociologists that there have few if any changes in gender roles and relationships within families. In 1973 Young and Willmott carried out some research and came to the conclusion that by the 1970’s the roles of the husbands and wives in the family have become more symmetrical. During their research they found out that in 72% of cases men actually did housework other than the washing up every week.
In many cases, the wife was expected to run the house and provide child care. The husband would be the breadwinner and handle the financial decisions. Love was shown in part by performing duties for the family. As we discussed marriage has undergone many transformations that helped weaken the social norms that defines normal relationship ideas over the past few decades. Some examples of this are apparent with the increasing number of cohabiting relationships and the changes in both marriage and divorce rates during the 20th century.
In a study conducted by the Future Foundation (2002), Young and Wilmot's theory was backed up by the conclusions that 75% of women now did less housework than their mothers, and that similarly, 60% of men did more chores than their fathers. This evidence supports the rise of the symmetrical family, in which the division of chores, childcare and paid work is split evenly between the man and women, however it has been noted that this change is most noticeable in the middle class. This may have become popular due to the change in women's position in society over the years, such as the ability to
This concept is not as true any longer. Many women now are out in the employment field just as the men and many women can actually do the exact same job as men. In today’s world, men seem to be more involved and caring with their families. In today’s society the roles of men and women have changed over time and have become quite similar. Some of the roles between the male and female seem to come from the biological difference just from simply being a male or female when looking at it in a family’s perspective.
Even though today more women have joined the workforce and often do the same jobs as men, women get paid less. Women who get paid less in the workplace, despite doing the same job as a man, experience what is called the “pay gap”. The pay gap, also known as the “gender wage gap”, is the earning difference between a woman and man. Men earn an extra $1,356 a month or $650,000 a year between the ages of 25 and 65 (Henslin, 2010, p. 316). Now if the male is also a college graduate the pay gap will increase to $2,482 a month and total of $1,192,000 during their whole career (Henslin, 2010, p. 316).