Asses the extent to which some sociologists claim husbands and wives now have equal relationships - page 1
Keywords: Equality Egalitarian Sexism Sexes Male Female Husband Wife
By roshooo on 10/06/2010
Level: A Level (Year 12) / AS Level
Page Number: 1 of 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5
In the late 50s, Elizabeth Bott distinguished between two different types of conjugal roles; segregated and joint. Segregated roles are where the husband and wife have completely separate roles – the husband is the ‘breadwinner’ and the wife is the homemaker, joint roles are where tasks are shared between the couple. Young and Willmott (1973) found in their stuffy of traditional working class extended families in the 1950s that gradually families were going from segregated conjugal roles to joint conjugal roles creating the ‘symmetrical family’, a more democratic, equal family. Talcott Paron’s (1955) highlighted the division of labour between spouses referring to the male’s paid labour as an ‘instrumental role’ and the female’s unpaid, domestic labour as an ‘expressive role’ which aims to meet the family’s emotional needs. Paron’s claims may be seen as outdated and fellow Functionalists Young and Willmott disagree with his view on these roles by taking a ‘march of progress’ view. They have found that more women are now going out to work and men are now helping out with domestic labour creating a ‘new man’ which is more open to sharing traditionally feminine tasks amongst himself and his partner. In this symmetrical family the couple are spending leisure time together also. Young and Willmott claim that husbands’ and wives’ relationships are beginning to be based on equality especially amongst younger, socially isolated, geographically isolated and more affluent couples and they argue that this is a result of increased equality for women, geographical mobility, labour-saving devices such as washing machines and dishwashers and higher standards of living.
It would seem that from their study, Young and Willmott are correct however functionalist assumptions can be criticised as they fail to recognise family diversity. ‘Conjugal’ roles refer to roles within a marriage and therefore this view excludes a variety of family types such as co-habiting couples, homosexual couples and even single-parent families. This exclusion has resulted in the use of the term ‘domestic division of labour’ as opposed to ‘conjugal roles’ because it is important to take into account the roles other family types take on and this term allows it because it is universal.
Dunne (1999) criticises the belief that there is equality amongst heterosexual couples as she claims heterosexual couples base their relationships heavily on gender scripts which are essentially the typical expectations which males and females usually conform to. She contrasts the marriage of a heterosexual
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