Oakley dismissed the view that husbands share part of the domestic chores. She conducted research in the early 1970’s which show a clear division of labour. It was based on interviews with 40 women with pone or more children under 5. The findings showed that the wives saw the housework and child care as their own responsibility and received little help from their husbands. Oakley’s results and conclusions support the theory of segregated roles.
Since her study there has been extensive research to support the division of domestic labour. The research shows that most women still became mothers and housewives, have experienced a time of full-time housework, and has returned to work them their youngest child is at school. The experience of full-time housework set the pattern for the future. Housework and childcare will remain the responsibility of the women, however as they enter the world of work, the burden is lightened by the men contributing more to the household chores. Unfortunately this burden is not significant and causes the women to have a double ‘shift’ of employment and domestic chores.
However, Young and Willmott claimed the roles were becoming increasingly similar, as in the home, couple’s shared their work and shared their time. Husbands increasingly helped with domestic chores such as washing up and cleaning; though this still remained the main responsibility of the woman. Decisions about family life were shared greatly, and it appeared that the division of labour based on gender was breaking down. The study by Young and Willmott shows that conjugal roles are now becoming more and more parallel.
Further evidence of a movement towards greater equality in domestic labour is by Gershuny (1992). He analysed data from 1974 to 1978. It showed the gradual increase in the amount of household chores performed by men. He claimed that it increased the greatest when the wives are in full-time employment. Husbands whose wives were in full-time employment doubled the amount of time they took on domestic labour. He concluded that women still have the main burden of household chores; there is a gradual increase of help provided by the men. He also suggested there is a lagged adaptation time; this is the time between women taking full-time employment and men making a greater contribution to the work. Gershuny reckons that it may take a generation for men to make an equal contribution.
There are many problems with the research into gender divisions of domestic labour when it is based of time-use studies. This is because the research asks who does what and how long do they do it for. One problem of the method is time. This is because the women tend to underestimate the time spent on domestic labour, and the men overestimate the time spent. Also, urgency is a problem, as women’s tasks are more urgent (e.g. cooking) than males. Another problem is the responsibility. This is because there is a difference between helping to do a task than it actually being a person’s responsibility. Finally, job satisfaction - time studies tell us little about the amount of satisfaction women and men derive from domestic labour. Women do tedious and monotonous tasks, whereas men do the interesting and creative tasks.
In conclusion, there are considerable amounts of studies to prove whether conjugal roles are becoming more equal. I believe that conjugal roles are levelling out because women have more say in their lives and what they can do in them. I feel that the emotion work is gendered towards the women as men are ‘emotionally distant’. Finances are gendered towards the male, as it tends to be the person with the highest wage has the biggest say in how it is spent. Decision making is mixed. The women dominate the decisions on food, clothes and interior decorations. Whereas the men dominate whether the family move house or buy a new car.
