Despite all the reasons for the rise of the symmetrical family, many sociologists (particularly female) argue that the extent to which families are symmetrical has been greatly exaggerated. Anne Oakley for example found that Willmott and Young used inadequate methodology in their research producing results which do not give an accurate picture of the family, her own research gives a contrasting image of conjugal roles to that of Willmott and Young. Willmott and Young simply asked one question to husbands in their research - "do you help with the housework?", a 'yes' answer to this question would include men who do the washing up once a week, and men who help on a daily basis, therefore the findings would show that more help is being given than there actually is. Oakley's research was based on in depth interviews with unemployed housewives and her findings do not agree with that of Willmott and Young that the Symmetrical family is commonplace, this is possibly due to the fact that Oakley asked women about conjugal roles and Willmott and Young asked men, showing that the perception of who does the household chores differs greatly between the sexes.
Oakley did find some evidence to support the claim of the Symmetrical Family, in her results she found men are more likely to help with childcare than they used to. However, according to the 1984 British Sociology Attitudes Survey this help seems to be restricted only to jobs the men actually enjoy such as playing with the children, Oakley found that very few men were willing to undesirable jobs such as change a dirty nappy. It would therefore appear that men can easily negotiate their way out of chores they do not like; a society with the ideology that women should be homemakers, makes it easier for them to do so.
Employment opportunities for women have increased but this has had little effect on conjugal roles according to Morris' research, she believed this to be because of our overriding influence of gender role socialisation. Women who earn a high wage still perform the majority of household/childcare chores although the husband is more likely to do some household chores if his wife also works. The stage in the family lifecycle along with the wife being employed/unemployed are the biggest factors influencing domestic division of labour.
The fact that women still tend to do the majority of all household tasks backs up the theories of Marxist and Feminists who see women's domestic labour as exploitation. Radical feminists see their biological role of childbearing as the reason for oppression by men. Patriarchal ideologies socialise women to accept their conjugal roles - this exploitation can only be overcome by dissolving patriarchal family structure. Marxists see the women's lack of economic power as her oppression - she is the "slave of the wage slave" and will remain so in a capitalist society.
Family ideology has different meanings in reality. In Morris' and other surveys, partners agreed that tasks should be shared equally, but in practice they were not. If women see housework and childcare as their main role they will not want joint conjugal roles. The very assumption that husbands "help" their wives with domestic chores demonstrates that these jobs are seen as "women's work".
Conjugal roles are constructed by people's views as to how they should behave. Until these views, as influenced by the media and other agents of socialisation, change, conjugal roles will remain largely segregated into male/female roles.
Willmott and Young's idea of a "Symmetrical Family" is accepted by many as the ideology of today's family, however in reality the ideology of joint conjugal roles rarely materialises. The caring sharing "new man" has not emerged and conjugal roles remain primarily divided. Although equality in marriage has greatly improved in terms of joint decision making the actual day to day running of the household remains largely segregated into "men's and women's work"
