I asked this question because in some cultures there is a tendency for the, children of contribute to household tasks so this may influence the amount of housework done by the couple .Also Duncombe and Marsden would
Generally speaking who carries out the following tasks?
I used this question to identify how household tasks are divided and also to see if the stereotypical roles within the home associated with women still existed.
As can be seen in this table the majority of contribution to housework is still in stereotypical areas. These stereotypical areas are in bold font. For example only 2 men out of a sample of 30 people said they do cooking in the home in comparison to 15 women. However it is interesting to see the increasing number of people that share tasks between themselves. This supports Wilmott and Young’s Symmetrical family which states that there is an increase in equality within the home .However structuring my question in this way is problematic because it doesn’t show how often tasks are shared and this makes it difficult to ascertain the extent to which the family is symmetrical.
I also discovered that some men perceived contribution to household tasks as doing what is theirs in the home for example ironing just their shirts or washing just their dishes.
In your opinion are household tasks more equal now than they were 30 years ago?
Most of my respondents agreed that household tasks are more equal. However there were variations in reasons as to why this may be.
The most common response l received was that women have more professional roles in society. Sociologist Sue Sharpe contributes to our understanding of why this may be. She studied changes in girl’s attitudes and aspirations in the 1970’s and 1990’s. She found a growth in the girl’s personal horizons, they placed a great stress on equality with men and emphasized on a woman’s ability to stand on her own two feet. Such aspirations in education help women achieve professional roles to show this independence. Duncombe and Marsden would argue that along with these ‘professional roles’ women also carried out emotional labour as well as housework. This they called, the Triple Shift. This supports my hypothesis because it elaborates on the type of work carried out by women in the home.
Another common response l received was that men and women now have similar ideals , an idea of sharing has emerged. This shows that a change has taken place in the relationship between husbands and wives. This evidence supports Wilmott and Young’s concept of the Symmetrical Family which states that husbands and wives regard each other as equal and share domestic tasks. However, my hypothesis clarified the extent to which this is so. My findings have cast doubt on the credibility of the Symmetrical family because housework is more equal but still not completely equal because women still do the majority of household tasks. There has been some progress but social attitudes are very slow to infiltrate main stream culture. This is evident from responses such as housework is for women. This shows that stereotypical values still exist.
It is dependent on the household as to who does what because it varies. This response allowed me to identify the fact that there are cultural differences in contribution to household tasks. For example, it is common in eastern societies such as India, Japan for the woman to take care of the house. The man is the head of the house domestically. These are traditional values and changes in this would be frowned upon.
In conclusion it is agreed that women do more housework however the contribution made by men is increasing due to changes in social attitudes.
Evaluation
From my findings I have been able to conclude that my theoretical assumption to some degree is correct because my findings supported my hypothesis, in that women do the majority of housework. However a number of mediating factors were highlighted in my research. These are the fact that there has been an increase in the proportion of men contributing to housework due to changes in social values and also the introduction of household appliances are invented to remove the drudgery from carrying out housework. This makes it easier and less time consuming for women.
I believe that my research method of structured interviewing was suitable because
However many methodological flaws were highlighted in my research. It was a
Some may criticise my research or findings for being sexually biased in favour of females however an advantage of the method I selected is that it is replicable. If my research has been conducted in an appropriate manner then similar results should be obtained.
