Gender roles

Youung and Willmott argued that thr modern family is a symmetrical family. Work is more qually balanced in household chores, childcare and decision making. this assumption as been made due to the change in the domestic devision of labour from segrated conjugal roles to joint/intergrated conjugal roles. 

improved living standards -  improved living standards such as centeral heating, tv, dvd,computers and the internet have encouraged husbands and wives to become more home centered, building the relashionship and the home. 

the decline of extended family and geographical mobility - there is less extended families and this means there is less pressure from kin on newly married couples to reetain traditional roles and therefore it is easier to adopt new roles in the relashionship. This also increases the dependence on eachother.

Elizabeth Bott did some research in to this. She said the most important factor influencing the roles between men and women was the closenss of the network of friends, kin and acquaintances. where couples have a close knit network where they had regular contact with one another this helped to reinforce the seperation. The men spent time with men and women spent time with women and the speration reduced things such as teasing. 

the improved status and rights of women - more women now in paid employment might mean men are more likely to accpet women as equals. Gershuny found that as women were working they did less and men did a bit more. However men still did the mascualine task more so, eg DIY 

The commercialization of housework - this refers to the way that there are now lots of consumer goods that help reduce the burden of housework. Silver suggests that the commercialization makes housework seem a bit easier and less skilled therefore encouraging men to do a bit more housework. 

weaker gender indentities - postmodernists would argue that men and women now have much more choice in how they see themselves and their roles. couples pick what they want to do based on choice. 

This view has been subject to very strong criticisms especailly from feminists. While there does seem to be some evidence of more role intergration in leisure activites and decision making, housework and childcare is still a womens 'job' 

While men are more involved with their children this tends to be in more enjoyable activites like playing and taking them out. Whereas women are still left with the jobs like bathing, changing and feeding. 

Domestic labour refers to the unpaid housework and childcare that mainly falls upon women. This is a clear inquality between men and women this problem is made worse by, no pay, no pensions, no holidays and unlimited working hours. 

The office of national statistics calcualted if the work at home was valued at the same as the average pay rate for a job it would be worth £700 billion a year. On average a women would be getting £31,627 a year. 

who benefits from this 

• Radical feminists - men are seen as the main people who benefit.
• Marxist - benefits capitalism, reproduces the labour force and no cost to the country. Provides physical and mental well being of family members so they are capable of perfoming there job 

there is major evidence that women take the majot responsibility fro emotional labour and ,anagaing the emotinal side of the family. 

Duncombe and marsden found that many long term relashionships were held together by women rather then men, putting in the emotional work neccessary to maintain a good relashionship. The emotional work links to what parsons says of having the exressive role in the family.

Women often have responsibility for 3  jobs 1)paid work 2)domestic labour 3)emotional work. This is known as the triple shift. 

decision making 

very few decisions are taking on by women alone compared to men alone. Edgell found women had sole responsibility fro decisions only in unimportant areas like, cooking, home decorations and childrens clothes. Men are more likely to have the finaly say in the important decisions like buying a home or taking out a loan. in most families the partner who earns the most money will have the final say. 

finacial decsions and money management 

Altoguh surverys show that 59% of married couples consuly eachother on finacial issues. 44% of working women were mainly repsonsible for making money decisons comared to 53% of men who were mainly repsonsible for making finacial decisions. Phal found the the growing individulaization measn the people often have independent finacial matters, this is more likely amoung younger couples with no children. 

Feminists pf all kinds are critical of the functionalists and new right view that the ceral packet family, is the most desirable family. While the family can be seen as warm and supportive it can also be a hostile and dangerous place.the growing privatization can lead to emotional stress in the family. Families are constantly together and lack support from extended kin. 

there is lots of evidence for violence in a relashionship. It is estimated that one in four women and one in six men will suffer from some form of domestic abuse and some point in the relashionship. 89% are commited by men agaisnt their femal partners. every year 150 people are killed by a current or fromer partner. Female victims will suffer an average of 35-7 assaults for an average period of seven years before infomring an agency. Around 2/3 of victims do not seek help becasue they believe that it will get worse are ashamed or see it as a private matter 

An average of one in four women have been ***** in their marriage and the majorit of the time females are the victim. The goverment estimates the 95% of rapes go unreported. Nearly half of rapes are used alongside physical violence/abuse. Only in 1991 that it was seen as a criminal violence 

Radical feminsts say it is a way of men to excercise their patriarchal power, to control and intimmidate women and keep them in a state of submission. 

Marxist feminists structual factors as well. They include social deprivation such as overcrowded housing and low incomes generating a lot of stress. 

Dobash and Dobash argues physical violence agaisnt women is the means by which womens unequal role is enforcedand that this is tolerated and reinfroced by social institutions.