Assess the functionalist view of the domestic division of labour. (21 marks)
Domestic division of labour refers to the roles me and women play, in relation to housework, childcare and paid. Functionalist such as Young and Willmott believe and see that the family domestic division of labour has taken a ‘march of progress’. With this march of progress view they believe that the family life improving for all members within in the family and it’s becoming fairer.
Young and Willmot believe the family has become more symmetrical as the roles within the household are becoming towards joint conjugal roles rather than the traditional segregated roles. They believe reasons for the family becoming more symmetrical are due to more women going to work so this causes men to now help and take over with housework and childcare.
On the other hand feminist Ann Oakley found that only 15% of husbands had a high level participation and only 25% had a high level of participation in childcare. This research shows that roles within the household are joint conjugal roles and women still do an very high percentage of the work along with working as well which results in women taking the dual burden.
The Essay on Role of Women in Ancient Egypt
Women in Ancient Egypt had numerous amounts of roles during Ancient History. What was the Role of a Woman in Ancient Egypt? I. Legal Rights of an Egyptian Woman A. Equal with men 1. Right to possess property and dispose of it 2. Often added threats and curses against people who tried to violate their rights B. Divorce 1. A letter describing how a man announced his intention to divorce his wife. 2. ...
Ann Oakley research illustrates how Young and Willmot view is exaggerated due to high percentage of women still doing most of the housework in a household. Feminists such as Ann Oakley reject the march of progress view and believe in the family it’s still unequal within the family also very little has changed.
In spite of Ann Oakley’s research, her research doesn’t have high validity due to the response of ‘high participation levels’ is not measurable and doesn’t transfer into true quantitative data. Plus due to her data not being representative and mainly asking housewives. Even though feminists claim that Young and Willmott’s views are exaggerated, Oakleys research doesn’t truly doesn’t back up their point due to low validity and representativeness.
Comparing it to Yong and Willmott study of families, they found that the symmetrical families were more common among younger couples who are geographical and socially isolated. This shows that there has been some form of progress slowly happening due to the change more common in younger families. This may show the rise of the symmetrical family may slowly happen through generations and due to socialisation. Young and Willmott believe the rise of the symmetrical family is due to major social changes that have taken place.
They believe that one that changes that creates more of a symmetrical family is new technology and labour saving devices. They believe this reduces the time and labour of doing the housework also it allows men to take part in housework tasks due to new technology for example; hoover, washing machine and dishwasher. A feminist would argue if there is new technology to making housework easier they why is there still such an unequal spilt of shared housework and women still have the dual burden.
However Hilary Silver and Juliet Schor argue the burden for of the housework has decreased and these developments has even caused there to be a death of the housewife role. On the other hand even though housework has become commercialised the rise of new technology only benefits people who can afford for such goods and services example; an poor women may not be able to afford such goods which still results in her doing the dual burden. This shows that the commercialisation doesn’t prove that chores are equal along with showing that even though one of the reasons for a rise in symmetrical family is due to new technology its shows that this rise will not occur in low socio economic groups.
The Essay on Sociology – family diversity
Using material from Item A and elsewhere assess sociological explanations of the nature and extent of family diversity today. Family diversity means that there are many different types of family in society today not just nuclear, cereal packet families. There are several different types of family within UK society. These include; nuclear, single parent, gay or lesbian, extended and reconstituted. ...
In summary, I believe that there is a march of progress and there is slowly a rise of a symmetrical family. But this rise will not happen all in forms of social groups. The rise of the symmetrical family will happen with younger couples that do not live in extended families due to geographical mobility. As this draws people away from communities and their families and what they brought up with. But this rise won’t occur in low socio economic due to them not being able to afford new goods and services and likely not being able to move geographically.
In contrast we still live in a society that is very male dominated, and due to socialisation of children at a young age example; toys referring to roles and socialising them for later life. Will socialisation and deeply ingrained gender scripts cause this rise of the symmetrical family never to really progress any further and only happen in a few social groups?
