This study shows in reference to the question. It does that by showing gender roles have changed in past years, however its only a small percentage of the population.
Another sociologist also found ideas linked to young and Willmott. His name was Gershuny (1994) He supports the ideas as he found wives who did not go to work did 83% of the housework and even the wives who worked part time still did 82% of the housework. He also found that wives who work full time did 73% of housework. It the longer the women work the more housework the man will do. Gershuny also found that couples whose parents had a more equal relationship were likely to share housework more equally themselves.
However it does depend on the class of society, the study isn’t considering other classes. It also doesn’t consider the time frame, and even though woman work more often they still do the majority of the housework.
The study shows reference to the question as in the 1950’s the women were still doing the majority of the housework. However nowadays there are a higher percentage of males in the domestic role and it isn’t necessarily the stereotypical family anymore.
However, some sociologists like Oakley argue with these views. Oakley said that even thought young and willmott found men do some housework, that they could only be taking the children to school or serving breakfast once a week. The study was supported with research carried out by Oakley. Oakley said doesn’t believe in symmetrical families. She took out a study and found that only 15% of husbands had a high level of participation in the housework and only 25% had a high level of participants of childcare.
On the other hand there was research in years later that prove Oakley wrong. For example Mary Bolton found that only 20% of husbands had a major role in childcare. Also men are thought to do the DIY and repairs. It wouldn’t be thought of the women going out to fix a broken car for example. Also most of the women in Oakley’s study in the 1970’s were full time housewives, but now many people have a second income from the woman of the family. Today 3 quarters of cohabiting women in the UK are economically active, against fewer than half in 1971.
The study shows reference to the question as it shows that men and women roles have changed over past years. Like how Mary Bolton found years after that the percentage of male housework had lowered by 5% compared to Oakley’s findings.
Other feminists have highlighted the impact of paid work on gender roles. For example is Rosmary Crompton (1997). She accepts Gershuny's evidence . She says in terms of economical factors rather than changing values of role models. As women's power increases relative to men's, so men do more in the home. Also a 'Dual Burden' is linked with the impact of paid work. Many feminists argue that despite women working there is a little evidence of 'new man' who does an equal share of domestic housework. Elsa Ferri and Kate smith provide evidence of the Dual Burden. They found that increased employment of women on the outside world has little impact On the domestic division of labour. They found that only 4% of fathers take the role of childcare.
These idea serve to evaluate Young and Wimott claim as it is saying (Dual burden) that even though the women work they still do the most childcare and housework, as young and wilmott said. Also Gershuny partly agrees with young and wilmott along with Rosemary crompton (1997).
This is useful to the question as it is saying how the gender roles have changed in recent years and its the idea that the women still does the most domestic work.
Overall I can say that the roles and males and females in a family have changed over the recent years. This is mainly because of Young and Wilmotts ideas and the fact that many other sociologists have agreed with him. There has been many factors which has led to the changes for example many women are now deciding to take the males role, e.g. go to the army. It maybe said now that the typical family (male goes out to work while women looks after children) is disappearing from our society. And maybe its time to accept that these changes were continue in the near future.
