Conjugal roles and the domestic division of labour

Overview

Segregated and joint conjugal roles, Bott, Oakley on housework and the conventional family, Edgell on decision making, Pahl on money, dual-career families and the double shift.

What you need to know

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Questions from this subtopic

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1. 1

   What is meant by conjugal relationships and conjugal roles?

   Model answer

   Conjugal relationships are the relationships between partners in a marriage or cohabiting couple. Conjugal roles are the tasks and responsibilities each partner takes on at home.

2. 2

   What are segregated conjugal roles?

   Model answer

   Segregated conjugal roles are clearly separate tasks for each partner, with the husband as breadwinner and the wife as housewife. Partners in segregated relationships often spend their leisure apart.

3. 3

   What are joint or integrated conjugal roles?

   Model answer

   Joint conjugal roles are shared tasks, with both partners doing housework, childcare and paid work. A couple with fully joint roles has an egalitarian relationship, sharing power equally.

4. 4

   What did Elizabeth Bott find about conjugal roles in the 1950s?

   Model answer

   Elizabeth Bott studied twenty London couples and published her findings in 1957. Bott found segregated roles were most common where couples kept close-knit networks of kin and friends.

5. 5

   What is the domestic division of labour, and how has it changed?

   Model answer

   The domestic division of labour is how housework and childcare are shared between partners. Men now do more than in traditional families, but women still do most unpaid domestic work.

6. 6

   How do functionalists, feminists and Marxists differ in their views of conjugal roles?

   Model answer

   Functionalists see roles as complementary and becoming more equal over time. Feminists see conjugal roles as unequal because families are patriarchal. Marxists argue that wives' unpaid domestic work keeps workers fit for capitalism at no cost to employers.

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