1. SOC: AS FAMILY SCN
Changing Gender Roles, Domestic Labour and Power within the Family
Key Questions:
1. Do men and women share housework and childcare equally?
2. Do men and women have equal say in family decisions?
Key words:
 Domestic Division of Labour
 Conjugal Roles- joint and segregated
 Double and triple shift
 Symmetrical Family
 Patriarchal
 Domestic Labour
 New Man
 Double Burden
 Gender Scripts
Instrumental and Expressive Gender Roles
A traditional view of gender roles in the family can be seen in TALCOTT PARSONS’
(1955) functionalist model of the family. There was a very clear division between
the role of husband and wife. The HUSBAND had the INSTRUMENTAL ROLE (i.e.
achieving success at work, be the bread winner) and the WIFE had the
EXPRESSIVE ROLE (i.e. geared to the primary socialisation children, meeting the
family’s emotional needs, homemaker, full-time housewife… not a wage earner).
According to Parsons, this division of labour is based on biology…. Women are
naturally suited to the “nurturing role” and men to “providing”.
Conjugal Roles
BOTT (1957) distinguished between 2 types of conjugal roles:
CONJUGAL
Segregated (separate roles like Parsons had described but also that
they spent their leisure time apart) and Joint (where couples share
household tasks and spend leisure time together). Segregated conjugal roles were
identified by WILLMOTT & YOUNG in their 1950s study of working class extended
families in Bethnal Green, East London. The men, mostly dock workers, were the
breadwinners spending most of their leisure time in pubs or working men’s clubs,
and the women took sole responsibility for the house and the children, with the help
of female relatives. What little leisure time they had (this was a long way away
from dishwashers and washing machines!) was spent with female kin.
Willmott & Young - The Symmetrical Family (1973)
Willmott and Young argue that there has been a long-term trend away from
segregated conjugal roles, towards joint roles within what they call a
SYMMETRICAL FAMILY. The symmetrical family describes a smaller, more
privatised family where conjugal roles become more ‘symmetrical’ (i.e. more
egalitarian/fair) even though not the same. This is partly a response to: the
increasing participation of married women in the labour force; men now helping
with housework and childcare; couples spending more leisure time together.
Families became more “home-centred”. This change can also be seen to be a result

2. SOC: AS FAMILY SCN
of major changes in society, e.g. women’s changing status (equality), geographical
mobility, technological labour-saving devices, and generally higher standards of
living.
New Man or Double Burden?
In the 1980s the phrase New Man came about to describe men who were modern
and forward thinking, in touch with their feminine side and as a result, wanted to be
a hands on dad and provide emotionally for his wife and children. GERSHUNNY
backed up this idea in the 1990s, arguing that women were going out to work in
large numbers and men had doubled the amount of time on housework and
childcare. But he suggests that it might take up to a generation before men make
an equal contribution to domestic labour and until then women will experience a
“Double Burden”, i.e. that they work full time and still do the majority of the
housework and childcare. Men therefore, benefit from the money brought in by
women doing paid work and their unpaid domestic labour. Feminists FERRI and
SMITH (1996) found evidence of Double Burden. They found that in their
sample of 1500 33-year-old parents, only 4% of the fathers took the main
responsibility for childcare.
A Feminist View of Housework
Surprisingly, feminists don’t share the idea that society is “marching” towards a
fairer family for all! Although they agree that change has occurred and the position
of women has greatly improved BUT both society and the family is still
PATRIARCHAL. Feminist ANN OAKLEY (1974) criticises Willmott and Young’s
view that the family is now symmetrical, arguing that they exaggerated their claim.
Oakley’s research showed only 15% of husbands had a high level of
participation in housework and only 25% had a high
participation in childcare. So not exactly symmetrical then!!
This work has been supported by WARDE (1993) who found
that sex-typing of domestic tasks remained strong in his
Manchester sample, i.e. men would only do “female” tasks
when their partner was not around to do them.
Lesbian Couples and “Gender Scripts”
DUNNE (1999) argues that gendered division of labour in
heterosexual relationships continues because of deeply ingrained “gender scripts”.
This literally means that each gender has a script (like in a play) that they have to
act out. This script is passed on to them during primary socialisation into gender
roles. Dunne compares this to 37 lesbian couples with children in her study. She
found that their relationships had much more symmetry, with the lesbian women
much more likely to: Describe their relationship as fair; share childcare and
housework equally; give equal importance to both partners’ careers; view childcare
positively. This is because they do not have to conform to a masculine or feminine
“gender script”.