Assess the View That Gender Roles and Relationships Have Become More Equal in Family Life.

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Assess the view that gender roles and relationships have become more equal in family life. Over the past 50 years several sociological researches has found out that the roles have become more equal. This could be predominantly to do with new technology which makes life easier for a stay at home parent. An early study by Edgell in 1980 came up with the theory that very important decisions such as moving house etc, would be done by the man of the house. However decisisons such as child care would be done by the wife or a joint decision. This could be down to the face that men predominantly earn more money than woman, so they get the choice, in this situation the man would play the instrumental role. This suggests that equality is at a minimum. On the other hand a study done in 1993 by Silver & Schor found that it is a lot easier in this generation to make food and clean up etc, due to the technology available, which reduces time taken to do the certain task which would give women more time around the house. So in this time they could go elsewhere and get a job to earn some extra money. This suggests things would be more equal. A study to oppose this would be the study done by Ann Oakley who’s research found that only 15% of men do housework and that 25% of them do any childcare. A lot of the couples say that the men ‘take an interest’ which means that they could do more but they have a slight intrest. This would suggest that men do some housework and help, but they do not do as much as they could. However Herde & Hetherington found that attitudes in men had changed amongst younger males and that they actually do help around the house. This could be to do with the fact that they are younger ad so probably wouldn’t have a full time job, so could do more around to help. In conclusion there has been a rise of a new man across realtionships this

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