Conjugal Roles

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Conjugal Roles

AIMS

        In this particular study I will examine the concept of equality in marriage.  I will use Bott's theories as a basis for my study. My aim is to find if chores are equally shared between men and women in Upper Newbolds households.  My motivation has arisen by an observation of my mother undertaking all the domestic chores.  I am interested to see if other families are similar or if conjugal roles are implemented in these households.  My study is part of a wider debate which links social networks and class with conjugal roles.

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CONTEXT AND CONCEPTS

        I will use Bott’s theories so I can relate close-knit networks and lose-knit networks with conjugal roles.  Rosser and Harris’ concepts of pulsive domesticity and close-knit networks will be used to explain why women traditionally do domestic chores.  

                Bott uses feminist theories to elaborate on conjugal roles.  Botts’ theory was implemented in the 70’s nevertheless I feel this is still relevant in today’s society as the concept of inequality still exists.  Bott found extreme segregation in working class families.  This maybe due to their connected social networks.  Bott’s study showed the degree of segregation in the role relationship of husband and wife has direct connections with the connectedness of their social networks.  The more connected the network the greater the segregation of the roles.  Bott’s theory has been criticised as she only studied twenty families in one particular area therefore her findings are not representative of the population.        

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        Rosser and Harris addopt Bott’s arguments but have elaborated on them.  They argue that there is a connection between social networks and conjugal roles but also find the degree of domesticity of the woman involved is a greater contributing factor.  They place emphasis on what occurs during marriage rather than the social relationships that preceded it.  They found that modern attitudes mean that women are losing their compulsive domesticity.  Rosser and Harris’ study shows that women’s social networks are becoming increasingly lose-knit but their conjugal roles are becoming joint.  

        Young and Willmott share Rosser and Harris’ views on joint ...

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