Secondary Research
Until the middle of the 20th century there was a clear division of labor between men and women. The man’s role was to go out to work and provide for the family, the woman’s role was to be a housewife and mother, looking after home and family. These have been called segregated conjugal roles.
As gender roles have changed over the last couple of generations, men now play a greater role in domestic life.
There are men who are househusbands, staying at home, usually to look after small children, while their wife, if they have one, works, usually to look after small children, works, usually in a highly paid job. Here the traditional role expectations for men and women are reversed.
The New man has a different meaning from househusband. A new man shares housework and childcare equally with his partner, but does not necessarily stay at home full time to do this.
The idea of the new man is to make men and women more equal, and to change negative aspects of men’s behaviour.
The new idea was that housework was not only a relationship between a woman and a duster or an unmade bed; it also defines a relationship between husbands and wives. This marked the departure from ‘the more conservative views of Betty Friedan’ who, in The Feminine Mystique, ‘never thought to enter men into the equation.’ She raged against a society that consigned its educated women to what she saw as essentially joint roles, but men are virtually non – existent from housework in her book. Educated women would just have to become more efficient, so that housework could no longer "expand to fill the time available".
The domestic workload may still be shared unequally in Britain but is not perceived as unfair. About three- quarters of men and women surveyed thought the division of housework time either “somewhat fair” or “fair”. This was a survey done on the general public in an interview.
The way household chores are divided between partners appears to depend also on the beliefs partners have about the role each should play in a partnership. Where both held more traditional beliefs, Ramos found, the division was more unequal and woman did the bulk of the domestic chores, namely food shopping, cooking, cleaning, washing and child care. Couples holding more egalitarian beliefs shared the housework load more equally.
For men, he found, the amount of time spent doing housework and paid work remained fairly constant throughout the 1990s. But for women, total work time decreased, reflecting a reduction in the time they now spend doing household chores - a reduction that has outweighed any increase in the time they spend in paid work.
In 1999, somewhere between 14% and 18% of households employed outsiders to do their cleaning, and the numbers have been rising dramatically since. (In the UK, a Work Foundation survey this year concluded that one in 10 working people employs someone to help with housework, while a survey by the electrical retailers Currys, also this year, put the figure at 40%; Data monitor estimates that an additional 17.9m households across Europe will take advantage of home cleaning and home laundry services by 2006.)
In Spain a new law, due to be passed in April, it has been introduced because it is likely to change the revolution in family in the country where 40% of men questioned said that they do no housework at all. It will persuade men to "share domestic housework and the care and attention" of children and elderly family members, according to the Spanish parliament's justice commission. The idea of equality within marriage always stumbles over the problem of work in the house and caring for dependent people.
A questionnaire done throughout the English-speaking world shows that wives, whether they are working or not, perform 70 to 80 per cent of the housework and that many husbands whose wives work full time do not help any more than husbands whose partners stay at home.
Data prepared by Mintel shows that 42% of British men, including many involved with childcare, shopping and other "new man" pursuits, accept that cleaning involves them "just a little" if at all. Some 6% of men among 25,000 respondents never do household chores and only 15% are tempted to try new cleaning products, however technological.
This is a table that shows how couples divide the household tasks in Britain. This survey was done in 1994. (Percentages)
Sociology by A. Giddens 3rd edition, polity press, 1999 Social Trends 1996
This is a table showing the different tasks men and women do around the house for example if you look at the table 47 people said that the woman always does the washing and ironing. And 25 people said it’s always the man doing small repairs around the house. As apposed to these days if they were to do it again I think there would be a difference. Over all this table shows that women still tend to do more around the house than men. But I think if this survey was done again the results would be different.
Over all I think that the roles are changing as women are going into better paid jobs which are full time. As they are introducing new laws to make men do more housework as before it was just the women but now the men are started to get involved and they are starting to share the work load equally as they might both work but still need to look after the children and do the housework so more people are starting to divide it between them.
Findings and Analysis
For my primary research I made a questionnaire which I handed it out to 25 people which is equal to 100%. I handed out my questionnaire to the students in my class whom I asked if they would fill out a questionnaire for me and asked them which parent done what or what they did. I then sorted the results and changed them into percentages so I knew exactly how many people said what.
I handed out my questionnaire to 12 males 48% and 13 female’s 52% as that is how many people I have in my class.
88% of those people said that they lived with a member of the opposite sex and 12% of those people said that they didn’t live with a member of the opposite sex.
Who does the laundry?
19 people 76% of people said that the female does the laundry
6 people 24% of people said that they both do the laundry together.
Who does the dusting?
2 people 8% said that the male member of the household done the dusting.
19 people 76% said that the female member of the family usually does the dusting.
4 people 16% said that the dusting was done both by the male and the female member of the household.
Who makes the dinner?
3 people 12% said that the male member of the household cooks the dinner.
10 people 40% said that the female member of the household cooks the dinner.
12 people 48% said that the cooking was done by both the male and female in the household.
Who does the shopping?
4 people 16% said that the male member of the household does the shopping for groceries.
11 people 44% said that the female member of the household does the shopping.
10 people 40% said that the shopping was done by both the male and the female member of the family.
Small repairs around the house?
18 people 72% of people said that the male member of the household done the small repairs.
3 people 12% of people said that the female member does the small repairs around the house.
4 people 16% of people said that the small repairs were done by both the male and the female.
Who does the hoovering?
4 people 16% of people said that the male does the hoovering in the household.
17 people 68% of people said that the female does the hoovering around the household.
3 people 12% of people said that the hovering was done by both the male and the female member of the household.
Who pays the bills?
4 people 16% of people said that the male member of the household pays the bills.
9 people 36% of people said that the female member of the household pays the bills.
12 people 48% of people said that the bills were paid by both the female and male member of the household.
Who does most of the housework?
1 person 4% of people said that most of the housework was done by a male member of the household.
21 people 84% of people said that most of the housework was done by a female member of the household.
3 people 12% of people said that the housework was mostly done by both of them the female and the male member of the family.
Look after a sick family member?
4 people 16% of people said that the male member would look after a sick family member in the household.
21 people 84% of people said that the male member would look after a sick family member in the household.
Do both of you go out to work?
19 people 76% of people said that both of their parents or them went out to work.
6 people 24% people said that only one of their parents went out to work.
Are gender roles now more equal?
13 people 52% of people think that gender roles are now more equal.
12 people 48% of people think that gender roles are not equal.
My findings show that over three quarters if the responds show that women are still doing the laundry.
Over one quarter of my responses said that the cooking was done both by the male and female in the household.
More than three quarters of people asked said that the male member of the household still done small repairs around the house which shows that it is still a mans job.
Less than three quarters said that the hoovering was done by the female member of the household.
My responses showed that just over half of the bills paid were paid by both the male and female member of the house.
Just over three quarters of people questioned said that most of the housework was done by the female member of the house hold.
My findings suggest that over three quarters of people asked said that the female member of the household would stay off work or at home to look after a sick family member.
Fewer than half the responds show that only one parent /member of the household went out to work. Contrastingly enough this also shows that just less than three quarters of people said that both of their parents/ members of the household went out to work.
More than half of the people asked said that they think gender roles are now more equal.
My findings and analysis show that women are still doing more work around the house and that a woman’s job still seems to be in the kitchen.
My results suggest their has been a slight change and that men’s attitudes are changing and they are starting to get a bit more involved with the house work.
My findings also show that men and women are starting to share work more equally for example my collected data showed that just over half the responses said that the shopping was done by both the male and female member of the household.
Conclusion
I have found my project to be very interesting. I tested my hypothesis and found it to be incorrect. My hypothesis was ‘Men are now doing more work around the house’ I have also covered what I set out to do in my objectives; my main focus to begin with was on the traditional roles of husbands and wives, fifty years ago there was a clear division of separation in tasks. I then considered any changes I needed to make and to see whether or not there has been a greater sharing of roles. I shall then look at the position of the gender roles today to see whether men are really doing more work around the house.
There are now new sets of rules being introduced to make men and women more equal; and there are now more opportunities available for men and women to help them gain equal status.
Evaluation
Throughout my investigation, I had to test if my hypothesis was correct or not, mine was found to be incorrect. I was faced with a couple of problems. My first problem occurred when I didn’t know what types of questions to include into my questionnaire and if they were relevant or not, I also didn’t know who to give out my questionnaire out to I then finally made the decision that I would hand it out to my class as they are reliable and easy to reach and I would also receive my responses in my hand so I new I couldn’t loose them.
I also found that some people missed out questions as they had their name on it I handed it back to them and explained the question properly to them to clarify any misunderstandings they had.
My hypothesis was incorrect I found that ‘women are still doing more around the house’. If I were to change anything I would change the questionnaire as I felt that the questionnaire is too long. I would also change some of my questions and group them properly.
I would also consider changing the scale of people I handed it out to and as well as the age of people I would consider giving it out to as all the pupils in my class are all teenagers who are fifteen or sixteen so the results wouldn’t be very varied instead I would hand it out to people of all ages so I could gain a wider variety of results.
Even though the governments have started to make new rules to make men and women more equal my results show that there is not much difference and women are still doing more around the house which shows that there is not much evidence on the change of gender roles.
Bibliography
Blundeil, Jonathan “Active Sociology” 2004 Longman.
Betty Friedan
Ramos
Giles Tremlett in Madrid April 8, 2005
Jenny Booth Tuesday May 11, 2004 the Guardian
Ivor Gaber Wednesday July 30, 2003
Zoe Williams June 28, 2005
Martin Wainwright July 7,2004
Akin Ojumu Sunday June 12, 2005
Saturday July 12, 2003
Appendices
Here is a copy of the questionnaire I used.
Questionnaire
1) What is your gender?
Male Female
2) Does a person of the opposite sex live with you in your home?
Yes No
3) Who usually does the laundry?
Man Woman both
4) Who usually does the dusting?
Man Woman both
5) Who usually makes the dinner?
Man Woman both
6) Who usually does the shopping?
Man Woman both
7) Who usually does the small repairs around the house?
Man Woman both
8) Who does the hoovering?
Man Woman
9) Who usually pays the bills?
Man Woman both
10) Who does most of the housework?
Man Woman
11) Who is more likely to take time off work to look after a sick family
Member?
Man Woman
12) Do both of you go out to work?
Yes No
13) Do you think the gender roles are now more equal?
Yes No
Thank you for filling in this questionnaire and for your time.
