Investigating the Segregated Conjugal Roles Between Men and Women in a Household
Conjugal roles are the tasks typically taken up by husband and wife in
the household.
My sociology coursework is about the segregated conjugal roles between
men and women in a household. My main aim is to find out if household
tasks are shared equally between men and women in the house.
In 1957, E.Bott analysed conjugal roles in the household. He studied
128 working and middle class couples and found that women were left to
do most of the housework and therefore there was a clear division of
labour between who carries out the household tasks. However, more
recently, in 1970 Young and Willmott found that this was changing and
that joint conjugal roles existed. They believed that men and women
both helped around the house and this was called the “symmetrical
family.” However, there was conflict feminists did not agree with
Young and Willmott’s theory. They said that although men were helping
out around the house more, the main responsibilities were still with
the women and that there was a clear division between what is seen as
a women’s job and a mans job. Foe example, gardening is still seen as
a job that should be done by men.
In my coursework, I am going to find out:
· How household tasks are shared between couples.
· Whether there is still existence of “men’s jobs” and “women’s jobs.”
· If men are helping are they taking sole responsibility or are the
duties shared?
My hypothesis is women and men both do work around the house however;
women are seen as responsible for making sure that it is all done. I
also think that the duties will not be soul duties but will be shared
between the husband and wife and that there will still be prejudices
of what household tasks are seen for men and which ones are specific
for women.
Methodology
To prove my hypothesis and answer the aims I will design three
...Many Kinds of Family Structures in Our Communities." . N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2014. .
A. How can this group be described based on their presence OR absence in the text?
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N.p., 2013. Web. 11 May 2014. Leckey, Robert. " Cohabitation and Comparative Method.
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The Roles of Women and Men in the Home Domestic roles which a husband and wife undertake in the house are called conjugal roles these can include childcare and housework. In the past there were clean divisions between the husband's bread-winning role and the wife's housewife/mother role. Today it can be argued that the divisions of labour within the home have become blurred and household tasks are shared. Some sociologists argue that a 'new man' is emerging, and he seems to be sharing more domestic tasks, engaging emotionally with women and showing interest in developing his fathering skills. Young and Wilmott argue that joint conjugal roles are becoming more common since families are becoming more 'home-centred'.
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