Sociology unit 1>family & household studies

Couples

• Parsons> Instrumental role→ the breadwinner or provider role in the family. Functionalist such as Parsons see this as the man’s role.Expressive role→ the caring nurturing, “homemaker” role in the family. Functionalists argue that women are biologically suited to performing this role, but feminists reject this.
• Bott> Joint conjugal roles→ where the couple share tasks such as homework and childcare and spend their leisure time together.Segregated conjugal roles→ where the couple have separate roles: a male breadwinner and a female homemaker/carer, as in Parsons’ instrumental and expressive roles.
• Wilmott & Young>Stage 3 of W&Y ‘s privatised nuclear family with more equal and joint conjugal roles in which husbands participate in domestic labour as well as being bread winners, and wives go out to work as well as being homemakers. The couple spend their leisure time together and are more home-centred.
• Oakley> Criticise W&Y and says that their claims are exaggerated and that there is a rise of the housewife role and this is becoming dominant role for married women.
• Ferri & Smith> Dual burden→ when a person is responsible for 2 jobs. Usually applied to women who are in paid work but also responsible for domestic work.
• Duncombe & Marsden> Emotion work→ the work involved in meeting the emotional needs of other people.
• Silver & Schor>

  Commercialisation of housework→ they stress the importance of…