The researchers from Oxford University found that working full time has a minimal impact on the amount of time devoted to work around the house for women. Man-yee Kan, who undertook the research stated that on average women in full time employment spent nearly 12 hours a week on household chores, compared to the 7 hours spent by men doing household chores.
The survey of 5000 women, carried out by Health Magazine Top Sante (2001) found that only 3% of men do more ironing or washing than their female partners. This, they discovered leads to resentment and can ultimately lead to the breakdown of the family unit. A survey carried out by the Office for National Statistics in 2004 also discovered that men in full time employment have on average an extra half hour of free time per week day, compared to women in full time employment. This increases to just less than 6 hours on the weekend for men and five hours for women. Over a typical 12 months this can amount to over 31 days of free time, in short, men have 1 month more free time than women each year. It should also be noted that the way in which men and women use their free time varies greatly. Participating in sport and exercise accounts for more of men’s free time than women’s, with women spending more of their time socialising, and in particular visiting family and friends.
It should also be noted that of the 5000 women polled (Top Sante 2001) 62% said they were over worked, 75% thought they were underpaid and 77% believed that career stresses were damaging their health. Only 23% of the 5000 women asked were happy with the employment and home situation.
Lynn Riley, secretary of the British Housewives League, believes that governments have been running the housewife down since the 1960’s and forcing women into work through economic disincentives such as cutting and then abolishing the married couples tax allowance (www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1183857) and as previously stated, the growing number of women in the workforce has not seen a growing number of men taking on the burden of housework and child rearing.
The research by Oxford University and the results of the survey carried out by Top Sante (2001) contradicts the work of Young and Willmott (1975). Young and Willmott saw the family as a largely self contained and self reliant unit. The family would no longer receive the kind of help and support that was typical of the Bethnal Green studies of the 1950’s. Young and Willmott stated that husbands and fathers were much less likely to spend time down at the pub with their friends and more likely to spend time with their wife and children. The roles of the husband and wife in the symmetrical family have become increasingly similar. In the home the housework is shared. The symmetry refers to an arrangement in which the parts are similar. In the symmetrical family, conjugal roles, though not the same have become increasingly similar (Haralambos, pg 199, 1986).
Research carried out by Ann Oakley during the same period as Young and Willmott showed a very different picture of conjugal roles. She interviewed women in depth about their attitude to housework and how much help their husband gave in the home. Each of the women were asked which household chore and child related tasks their husbands regularly participated in. This ranged from shopping, household chores, including washing, cooking and cleaning and child rearing, including dressing and washing children, putting them to bed and supervising play. (Oakley,A, pg 337-340, 1977)
Ann Oakley’s findings were that men tended to participate in and share more of the childcare than the housework, and the jobs undertaken tended to involve playing with the children rather than practical tasks such as bathing them or changing nappies. All of the women questioned saw their primary role as that of looking after the home and the needs of the family. However, it should be noted that all of the women surveyed were solely housewives and did no paid employment outside of the home and the research was only based on a sample of 40 women.
However, more up to date figures from the Office of National Statistics in January 2004 show that women still spend more time than men caring for their children, and this is true even of full time working mothers, with women spending four and a half hours a day on childcare and other child related activities compared to three and a half hours spent by men.
When analysing the caring duties of the family it is also important to investigate the number of carers looking after elderly dependants. The burdens carried by women caring for the growing number of elderly dependants is probably greater now than in the early part of the century. In most cases female carers are more likely than men to be carrying the main responsibility for care giving of elderly dependants, whilst at the same time looking after their own siblings, undertaking household chores, being engaged in paid employment and looking after the needs of their husband or partner (Glendinning & Millar, pg 34, 1992)
When taking all of this information into account it is no real surprise that there continues to be an increase in the divorce rates. In 2001 there were two million divorced women, compared with 296,000 divorced women in 1971 (Office for National Statistics, 2004). Lone mothers head the majority of lone parent families, with only one in ten lone parent families headed by a lone parent father. These figures further dispel Young and Willmott’s theory regarding the symmetrical family. Almost 70% of divorces in England and Wales in 2001 were granted to the wife, with women most likely to be granted a divorce on the grounds of unreasonable behaviour (Office for National Statistics, 2004).
A number of researchers have argued that the rising divorce rate is related to the changes in the position of women in society. Haralambos points out the link between the rise in divorce and the growth of jobs for women, citing studies by Heather Ross and Isabel Sawhell, which showed that the higher the women’s income, the more likely they were to separate from their husband. However, as Haralambos points out, women who are unhappy within the marriage are more likely to seek employment outside of the home, thus gaining financial stability and fulfilling their own emotional needs (Haralambos, pg 212, 1987)
It should however be noted that embarking on lone parenthood does not bring with it fruitful experiences in the majority of cases. Half of all lone mothers live in social sector housing and are more likely than lone fathers to be living in any sort of rented accommodation (Office for National Statistics, 2004).
In conclusion, it appears that the modern family is more than just a husband and wife with dependant children living as a symmetrical unit. The modern family is made up of many differing units, including man and women living as man and wife, man and woman cohabiting, same sex couples living together and single adults, and all of these are either living with or without children, but each are a family unit. But none of these units can be seen as symmetrical.
We all have very different roles to play within society, and research shows us that there have been significant changes in the contours of family lives and personal relationships over the past 30 years, with increased cohabitation, separation, divorce, lone parenthood, more step families and more people living on their own. These changes have coincided with the increased employment of mothers and women and increasing inequalities.
Pessimists within society see these changes in family life as bringing moral decline, a lack of social stability and solidarity, a parenting deficit and selfish individualism. However, the optimists see the new family units within modern day Britain as being more open and democratic and producing more rewarding relationships, with love acquiring a greater significance (Williams,F, pg 24, 2004)
The symmetrical family does probably not exist as Young and Willmott believed it would be. Women are working more hours than ever before and a higher proportion than ever are bringing up their children alone. It could be argued that whilst women have continued to take on more and more responsibility, both within the home and the workplace, men’s position within society has remained relatively unchanged. The burden of being the sole wage earner has been lifted from them with more and more women now working, and in some cases earning more than their husbands or partners. The responsibility of child care arrangements and child rearing activities still falls mainly on the shoulders of women. However, as this essay has demonstrated men still continue to do less than women with regard to household chores or the rearing of children.
As James Brown proclaimed “This is a mans world” “But it wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl”
References
- Bradshaw, J & Millar, J, Lone Parent Families in the UK, Department of Social Security Research, Report No. 6, London: HMSO
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Family Policy Studies Centre, Families in Britain, Family Report 3, www.vois.org.uk/fpsc
- Family Policy Studies Centre, A Guide to Family Issues, Family Briefing Paper 2, www.vois.org.uk/fpsc
- Glendinning,C & Millar, J, Women & Poverty in Britain the 1990’s, 1992, Harvester Wheatsheaf
- Haralambos,M, Sociology: A New Approach, 1987, Causeway Press Ltd
- Marshall, G, Oxford Dictionary of Sociolology, 1998, Oxford University Press
- Oakley, A, Are Husbands Good Fathers, 1977, New Society
- Office for National Statistics (www.statistics.gov.uk/focuson)
- Williams, F, Rethinking Families, 2004, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
- Williams, F, The Politics of Parenting and Partnering in Local Support Groups: Mobilisation Care and Support, Forthcoming, 2004
- www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/1183587
- www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/1218905
- www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/1424339
- www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/1385706
- Young, M & Willmott, P, The Symmetrical Family, 1975, Penguin Harmonsworth
