Conjugal roles and family relationships

Overview

Segregated and joint conjugal roles, Willmott and Young's symmetrical family and stratified diffusion, Oakley, Edgell, Pahl, the New Man, dual-career families, child-centred families, boomerang children and the sandwich generation.

What you need to know

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Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is the difference between segregated and joint conjugal roles?

   Model answer

   Segregated conjugal roles give husband and wife separate tasks and leisure, as with a male breadwinner and a female housewife. Joint conjugal roles share housework, childcare, decisions and leisure. Bott (1957) first used these terms in a study of London couples.

2. 2

   What did Willmott and Young mean by the symmetrical family?

   Model answer

   Willmott and Young (1973) described a nuclear family in which the roles of husband and wife become similar, though not identical. Willmott and Young took a functionalist view, seeing this change as progress.

3. 3

   What factors did Willmott and Young think produced the symmetrical family?

   Model answer

   Willmott and Young pointed to more women in paid work, better housing and rising living standards. Geographical mobility weakened ties with extended kin, and labour-saving devices made home life more attractive.

4. 4

   Explain the principle of stratified diffusion.

   Model answer

   Stratified diffusion is Willmott and Young's idea that new family patterns start in the higher classes and spread downwards. Willmott and Young predicted a work-centred ‘managing director’ family would spread down the class structure in this way.

5. 5

   What method did Willmott and Young use in their 1973 study, and what is one weakness of it?

   Model answer

   Willmott and Young used a large social survey, interviewing 1,928 adults in the London area. Answers about who does housework may be exaggerated, because people give socially acceptable replies.

6. 6

   How did Oakley criticise Willmott and Young's claim of symmetry?

   Model answer

   Oakley (1974) noted that a husband who helped with housework once a week counted as sharing it. A threshold that low greatly exaggerates how equal marriages had become.

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