Elizabeth Bott conducted a lot of research into conjugal roles and came up with the term ‘joint conjugal role’ which means that the couple share the housework and the childcare. This type of relationship has become much more common since the 1970’s, this suggests that there is more equality between men and women in domestic labour and gender roles. Controversially, Bott discussed segregated conjugal roles, the ‘instrumental role’ played by the man, meaning he provides for the family by going to work whilst the women play the ‘expressive role’ meaning that they cook, clean and look after the
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.
Both say that the family is becoming a symmetrical family. A symmetrical family is where both partners do housework, both partners look after the children; both partners have paid work and spend quality time together. This means that there is an increase in men and women starting to share the household tasks. On the other hand Feminists believe that men get an “easy life”. Feminists believe that society is patriarchal; this means that men dominate the society.
Feminist views of the family revolve around and understanding of the term patriarchy, which means make domination. Feminists agree that men tend to have a superior position in society and that women suffer oppression because of this. Many feminists argue that the family is a corner stone of this oppression and as such needs careful analysis. Liberal feminists believe that the fanily is gradually becoming less oppressive for women, they cite the move of many families towards more symmetrical roles where men take more part in the domestic roles so that women are no longer burdened by the mundane, repetitive, low status work of cleaning, laundry and childcare work which makes their position in society less powerful than mens. However, radical feminists disagree.
In Item A, it states that many sociologists today argue that family roles and relationships are gradually becoming more and more equal. Functionalist Young and Willmott claim that the family is now symmetrical. Its steadily replacing the old the old segregated pattern of segregated conjural roles, similar to Parsons functionalist idea. They believe in the “March of Progress” and that there is a long term trend towards joint conjural roles, where woman work (although mostly part time) and men help with the housework and childcare. According to Parsons, husbands are the breadwinners and the wife has the nurtring and caring role and that this is based on biological differences between the sexes, a view shared by the New Right.
They see the rise in the symmetrical family as a result of major social changes in the past century; changes in women position, including married women going out to work, geographical mobility, more couples living away from the communities in which they grew up. Additionally, Gershuny found that wives who worked full time did less domestic work and that the longer the wife had been in pain work, the more housework her husband was likely to do. However, the most important thing is that the roles of the husband and wife, although not identical, are more similar now then they
This idea has been criticised as being too traditional by theorists who suggest that equality within the family has happened and that the ‘norm’ of gender roles is diminishing. Therefore, some say that in the modern society of today, the old functionalist view seems insignificant as it does not represent modern family life. The item says that ‘changing attitudes to gender roles and increased participation by women
Assess the extent to which ‘Husbands and Wives now have a relationship based on equality’ Willmott and Young were March of Progress Theorists. They believe that the family is slowly developing and becoming more equal. They argue that the family now consists of joint conjugal roles and the ‘symmetrical family’ rather than segregated conjugal roles. Segregated conjugal roles were said to be more common for working class extended families in the early industrial times. Segregated conjugal roles were when the couple had separate roles; the male was the breadwinner and the female was the caregiver.
Utilities and food costs could run a bit higher because more people are in the home more often than families where both parents work. A bonus to having a stay at home parent is that there are relatively little or no costs associated with day care expenses. Overall, a family with two working parents will have a better financial situation than a single career family Another difference between a two career family and a one career family is the amount of involvement with their children. Two career families often have a difficult time finding opportunities to volunteer in schools or take their children special places during the week due to their work schedules. They are restricted by their employers on the amount of time that they can take off of work as well so they may have to rely on babysitters or family members to do
However, in the late 19th Century, railways expanded and thus people were able to travel from further away. This meant that the rich had the option of living suburbs or the countryside so they moved out of the city houses which meant that Islington became abandoned. This was managed by having poorer people moving in but it meant that most homes became run down because it was expensive for repairs and redecoration. However, in the 1960s, middle class started to buy up the property because of its good transport links, affordable house prices and an increase in jobs. This meant that Islington slowly started to become a more desired place to live.