There are two types of conjugal roles which Elizabeth Bott (1957) distinguishes between. One being segregated conjugal roles which are when the couple have separate roles as Parsons suggest; the man being the bread winner and the woman being the nurturer, their leisure time is also separate, like their roles in the family. Joint conjugal roles are when the husband and wife have the same roles and share their domestic tasks. They also share their leisure time. Sociologists have been looking at how conjugal roles are becoming more towards joint conjugal roles.
A study which Young and Wilmott looked at in which they studies 1950’s working class extended families in East London showed that women and men have segregated roles which are unequal. The women were dependant on the men and their roles were of the stereotypical roles, this was the time when social attitudes were normal. Young and Wilmott (1973) see the family as gradually improving for the members and is becoming more egalitarian. They argue that families are turning away from the segregated conjugal roles and more towards joint conjugal roles.
Young and WIlmott also did a study looking at families in London and found that the symmetrical family was more common amongst younger couples who were socially different. They found the rise in symmetrical family due to changes in women’s positions, the fact that there are geographical mobilised as they both cooperate and work together to survive, there are new technological devices which are labour saving and finally the higher standards of living. In some way, these factors are all interlinked.
Another sociologist, Ann Oakley (1974) suggests that despite the reduction of gender differences in the occupational world, the role of the housewife still remains feminine and will continue to do so. Feminist sociologists argue that little has changed within the family and the roles of men and women remain unequal within the family. The y see this as a result of patriarchal society where men dominate the family and women are the depends of the family. According to Oakley, the claim that Young and Wilmott made that 72% of husbands ‘help in the house’ is not accurate. She claims that according to their findings, men only perform one household chore a week and with their own research found that there is no evidence of a trend towards symmetry. They argued that husbands were more likely to share their childcare, not the housework and share the more pleasurable aspects of housework. Therefore, they argue that the modern conjugal roles are increasingly egalitarian but not fully equal yet.
Warde and Hetherington (1993) suggest that ‘sex typing’ of domestic labour tasts remain strong. For examp0le, women are more likely to do the washing up whereas as husbands are more likely to have washed the car. They found that there has been a slight change of attitudes amongst the younger and as they don’t apply the stereotype of women to their wives and the help with housework. Oriel Sullivan (2000) did an analysis of data and found that there was a trend towards greater equality as men did more domestic labour. There was an increase in couples with an equal division of domestic labour as men were more participant in traditional roles of women. Both Gershunny and Sullivan agree that there has been an increase in the division of domestic labour, but Gershunny suggests that it is still not equal due to women working more.
Silver (1987) and Schor (1993) look at the economic developments of reducing the burden of housework on women. They argue that housework has become commercialised and women are now working more, which has led to the ‘death of the housewife role’. Critics of this study say that poorer women can’t have the goods which reduce domestic labour and the conjugal roles are still not egalitarian.
Man Yee Kan (2001) looks at the factors to which the amount of housework is dependent upon and says these factors are; income from employment, more income leads to less work from the woman. Age is another factor, the younger the woman the more work she does. Education is another factor, better education means a better job, and this leads to less work. J.Gershunny (1194) agree’s with Man-Yee Kan and concluded that the longer the woman is at work, the less household work she does and the more equal the division of labour is.
Other factors which sociologists have looked at are the division of finance, the ‘emotion work’ and the decision making; that makes the decisions and what types of decisions. Studies done show that men are the main decision makers in the family and that the financial support given to their wives is often unpredictable. Edgell (1980) found that wives dominated decisions in more of the feminine things such as decorating, clothing and the food whereas men make the decisions on moving houses, buying cares and financial decisions. It can be concluded that husbands have more power than their wives in terms of decision making.
To conclude, the term ‘egalitarian’ is difficult to define and there are many problems in measuring it. Sociologists haven’t yet agreed to the modern conjugal roles being egalitarian but have shown the increase in it becoming equal. There are influences from the wider society such as economic factors, social inequalities, etc., which leads to problems in measuring the conjugal roles.