Zusammenfassung der Ressource
division of labour
- DIVISION OF LABOUR
- Talcott Parson believe in the traditional division of labour
- Instrumental Role =
(provider/breadwinner role)
- Expressive Role = (nuturing caring
and emotion role)
- Segregated Conjugal Roles
- when couples have seperate roles
within a household (male = breadwinner,
female = homemaker)
- Parson agrees with this view!
- Joint Conjugal Roles
- roles between partners are
shared, based on equality -tasks
such as housework and childcare
is shared and leisure time is
often spent together
- The Symmetrical Role/ Family
- Young and Willmott take a 'march of
progress' view of history of the family
- - Family life is gradually improving
for all its members (becoming more
equal and more democratic
- - Families are moving away from segregated
conjugal roles and towards joint conjugal roles
and the symmetrical family
- - Women now go to work
- Couples now spend time together
- men now help with housework and childcare
- *More common among younger couples,
those who are geographically and
socially isolated and the more richer*
- Factors for the rise of
symmetrical family
- 1. Changes in women's
position - including women
going out to work
- 2. Geograhical Mobility -
more couples live away
from the communities in
which they grew up
- 3. New Technology -
devices that make
housework easier
- 4. Higher Living
Standards
- A Feminist View of Housework
- Many feminist reject the 'march of
progress' view
- Men and women remain unequal within the family
- Women still do most of the housework
- *inequality stems from the fact that the
family and society are patriarchal*
- Oakley criticises the 'symmetrical family'. She
argues claims are exaggerated
- 'helping out' could simply mean
cooking once a week (Young and
Willmott's Research
- In her own research - Oakley
found some evidence of a
trend towards symmetry
- *Only 15% of
husbands had a
high level of
participation in
housework, and
only 25% had a
high level of
participation in
childcare*
- Later research supports Oakleys findings, Mary Boulton found
that fewer than 20% of husbands had a major role in childcare
- Young and Willmott exaggerate
men's contribution by looking
at the tasks involved rather
than the responsibilities
- Mother's responsible for child's
security and well being. Fathers
help with basic tasks
- Oakley disagrees with Young and
Willmott to such an extent that she
believes the housewife role has become
more dominant for married women
- even though the 20th century saw an increase in
the number of married women working, the
housewife role is still women's primary role
- women who work are more concentrated in low -
paid jobs that are often an extension of the
housewife role
- Warde and Hetherington did find evidence of a slight change of
attitude among younger men. They no longer assumed women
should do the housework, and we more likely to think they were
doing less than their fair share
- This generation change is partially supported by other research. The Futures
Foundation Study of 1000 adults found that 60% of men claimed to do more
housework than their fathers, while 75% of women claimed to do less
housework than their mothers