Gender Roles and Relationships Have Become More Equal in Modern Family Life?

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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. Young & Willmott see this as a positive move and described it as a “march of progress.” By this they mean that men in the past had been lagging behind women in terms of domestic labour and gender roles but now have caught up and are more or less equal or symmetrical. Feminists have severely criticised the work of Young &Willmott, one feminist in particular Ann Oakley claims that, “housework is exclusively allocated to women.” She describes housework as, “unpaid, isolated and makes women economically dependent on men.” Hobson takes this a step further by saying “housework is repetitive compulsive and endless often with no physical separation between work & Leisure for the housewife.” Oakley claimed that full time housewives spent an average of 77 hours per week on housework. Oakley argued that although 72% of men do housework was impressive this was only based on the question “do you help at least once a week with the cleaning for example making the bed or ironing? The problem is a male who ironed a jumper once a week would be included in this 72% even though they are hardly making a contribution to the housework at all. Oakley also found that 76% of employed women and 93% of unemployed women were housewives. This research suggests
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