The Domestic Division of Labour

The Domestic Division of Labour

1. 'March of Progress' View = Sees conjugal roles becoming more equal in modern society.

   • Bott - two types of marriages:
     • Joint Roles = Couples involve sharing domestic tasks and leisure time.
     • Segregated Roles = Sharp division of labour between male and female.
   • Young and Willmott: The SYMMETRICAL FAMILY (1973)
     • Couples spend their leisure time together; men have become more home-centred and the family more privatised.
     • Men help with housework and childcare.
     • Most women now go out to work.
     • SOCIAL CHANGES during 20th century - higher standards of living, labour-saving devices, better housing, women working, and smaller families.

2. HOUSEWIFE ROLE - Oakley

   • Rejects functionalism + 'march of progress' view. Family IS patriarchal, NOT symmetrical - Dual burden/triple shift.
     • Young and Willmott exaggerate men's role.
   • The housewife role is the primary role for women. It is the result of industrialisation and factory production in the 19th century, which led to the separation of paid work from the home.
     • Women excluded from the workforce and confined to the home. Men became the sole breadwinners, resulting in women's economic dependence.
     • The housewife role is socially constructed and is NOT NATURAL (unlike what functionalism and the New Right would say).
   • Boulton - we need to look at who is RESPONSIBLE for tasks, not just who performs them. Less than 1 in 5 husbands took a major part in childcare.

3. Parsons

   • The New Right agree with Parsons that this biologically based gender division of labour is the best way of organising family life.
   • Two Conjugal Roles
     • Gender division of labour among couples is 'functional' for the family, its members, and wider society. Division as biologically based - women are naturally suited to nurturing, men to providing - everyone benefits from this specialisation.
     • Expressive Role
     • Instrumental Role