Margaret Mead led a study on different tribes. She identified three New Guinea tribes to show how the natural roles are led by society. The Arapesh showed little distinction between males and females. Both sexes were gentle and feminine whereas few differences were made between Mundulgan men and women whose tribe bred aggressive, rough, masculine personalities. Then there was the Tchambuli tribe where the gender roles were reversed and the women went out to work and were the main providers the men stayed home were more passive, vain and enjoyed a good gossip.
Sociological theories tend to see gender roles as inevitable and natural. Talscott Parsons suggested that the modern family allocates one parent, the father, to take on the masculine, hunter type role and the mother, because she gave birth and nurtured the babies, takes on the psychological support and the responsibility for the socialising of the children.
In Young and Wilmotts study they noted the conjugal relationship was becoming more symmetrical. More married women work outside the home and fathers play a bigger part in the care for their children i.e. in bathing and the home and that mental roles have become more equal. In the early 1990’s sociologists argues that the role of the father was changing. Men were more likely to attend the birth of their babies than men in the 1960’s and they were more likely to play a bigger role in the lives of their children than that of their own fathers. It is important to stress that men’s roles in childcare is still primarily down to the mother rather than jointly shared with the mother.
Ann Oakley on other hand disagrees. She argues that this is not the case and although the women may go out to work she is still expected to look after the home and the physical and psychological needs of both her husband and their children. She is often made to feel guilty for working and not being there for her family. Many mothers give up work because they feel their husband and children may be suffering in the long run from her not being around.
In 1978 it was estimated that three or four times as many families would be in poverty if the woman didn’t go out to work. In the 1980’s we saw economic repression and many fathers were out of work or on low pay. They found little or no opportunity to boost their pay with overtime. To be able to raise the family’s standard of living so they could maybe raise their mortgage and afford a bigger house or to be able to afford holidays abroad.
Industrialisation has enabled more women to go out to work as the demand for female labour has increased, although they are often low waged or employed on a part-time basis. Educational and work opportunities are far more accessible for women today due to help with crèche’s and the government paying for childcare for those on low incomes.
Fathers or husbands are far less disapproving than they were thirty years ago and mothers going out to work is more the norm. With the help of household gadgets like tumble dryers, washing machines, dishwashers and microwaves, they reduce time spent on doing household chores and make life easier for the women to have a job outside the home.
Willmott and young carried out a survey in 1974 where they found that men spent on average only ten hours per week on household tasks compared with twenty three hours spent by women employed on a full-time basis and thirty five hours for women who worked on a part-time basis.
Ann Oakley disagrees with Willmott and Young’s studies. She argues that most families do not share household responsibilities. The family is majorly patriarchal with the husband as the main earner with the primary role of the married women remains as the housewife.
Sue Sharpe found that thirty-six per cent of working class mothers with jobs outside the home received hardly any help at all with household chores from their husbands, especially if the husband was made unemployed. Studies of unemployed men show that although they do more around the home, their wives, even though they are working fulltime themselves still tend to do a majority of the housework. Sociologists have suggested that unemployed men refuse increased involvement in housework as it threatens their masculinity, especially if their wife is now the main breadwinner. Instead she found that sons and daughters were often paid generous amounts of pocket money to help out around the home. In an American study by Walker and Woods in 1976 they found that the average time spent by husbands increased from six to twelve minutes per day being spent on food preparation when their wives went out to work.
In all of these studies it appears to be the mother that takes on the emotional feelings of all her family members. But what about what she wants? After all what would happen if she were absent. She must at some point consider her own needs and feelings and at least have some sort of social life.
Society tends to give low status to women as housewives, but with an occupation they raise the stakes and give themselves a separate identity apart from the role of housewife and mother. Not only does this give the woman a certain amount of independence but also gives her self esteem a boost. If she doesn’t look after her physical and psychological needs as well as the needs of her husband/partner and children then everything else begins to fail. Many women are attracted by the sociable, adult company, which the workplace can bring as well as the involvement in an interesting and worthwhile job. Some are keen to escape the boredom and depression of being isolated, and in some cases, only having her children or baby to talk too.
