1. CONJUGAL ROLES
Conjugal roles have become more
Conjugal roles have become more equal
equal in years. (MJ 2002)
in recent recent years. (MJ 2002)
Sociology, 11th February 2012
2. CONJUGAL ROLES?
Simply means the roles played by a
male and female partner in marriage
or in a cohabiting relationship.
Conjugal roles show few divisions
between male and female partner’s
roles.
There are two types of ‘Conjugal
Roles’.
3. Segregated /
Joint roles
Separated roles
Where husbands and wives do not Where husbands and wives share
share housework and childcare, housework and childcare,
decisions and leisure time. decisions and leisure time.
4. FUNCTIONALIST VIEW
According to the functionalist Talcott
Parsons, there are segregated roles in
the family because these are ‘natural’.
Men have ‘instrumental roles’.
Women have ‘expressive roles’.
Argues that men and women simply
have naturally different roles and that
both are needed for the family to run in
a smooth fashion.
5. FEMINIST VIEW
• Argues that segregated roles are much
more widespread than joint roles.
• Feminist talk about ‘Triple Shift’ of women,
1. Career.
2. Housework.
3. Emotional works (Support family)
• Feminists:
• Hannah Garvon.
• Ann Oakley.
• Stephen Edgell.
6. Hannah Gavron
Describe that women as ‘Captive wives’.
Women has high expectation of marriage and freedom, yet
were then even more affected by the unequal division of
domestic labour.
This led to feelings of being ‘Captive’, of marriage feeling
like a prison.
7. Ann Oakley
Identified the existence of
strong segregated roles.
Women tend to do all the
housework.
She takes a critical stance
against the claim made by
Young and Willmott
(Functionalists).
For Young and Willmott,
families are becoming
increasingly ‘symmetrical’ as
time goes on.
8. Stephen Edgell
He studied middle class couples.
Found women made decisions over children, food,
cleaning and decoration.
Men made the serious decisions - car, housing, and
buying expensive goods.
This study cast doubt on Willmott and Young’s
(functionalists) study- where they argued that the
family had become more symmetrical (equal).
9. Conclusion:
The overwhelming evidence seems to suggest that
families are no longer symmetrical, but that
women are working in paid work more than ever
before, and that there is increased democracy for
women.
