Young and Willmott’s argument for their symmetrical family stated that a new family form was emerging – one in which both men and women have two roles, in paid work and in the domestic sphere. Feminist Ann Oakley on the other hand argues that Young and Willmotts claims of increasing symmetry were based on inadequate methodology and states that their conclusions based on one interview was worded in a way that could grossly exaggerate the amount of housework done by men further research by Edgell (1980) supported Oakley and found little sharing of household tasks.
Another feminist who carried out studies on the family and domestic wives was Hannah Gavron. She studied working-class mothers and found quite the opposite to Oakley, although they both did their research at the same time. She found that joint conjugal roles were much more common among the lower classes where the women were very miserable and looked to their husbands as relief from their loneliness. Gavron thought that the sharing of conjugal roles showed that the two people within the marriage wanted to be closer emotionally and could achieve this by working together within the home. This study reflects Wilmot and Young's 'Symmetrical Family', which shows the conjugal roles as joint with the husband and wife carrying out similar and equal household tasks
The vast majority of sociological research on Domestic Labour point to the fact that it is seen as an almost exclusively female domain. This was another important point noted by Oakley in her publication “Housewife”1974.
The emergence of Dual income families has put further pressures on the modern family life. Martin and Roberts (1984) completed a study noting that when a woman takes on paid employment, there is only a marginal reduction in the time she spends on housework.
Heid Hartman carried out research in USA (“The example of Housework” 1981) and found that full-time housewife’s worked on average 60 hrs per week on household chores and when children were involved and extra 10 hours was added to domestic labour. In contrast, Hartmann concluded that males devoted only 11hours per week on household chores and with young children involved 5 hours a week were devoted to them. Men it was noted gave the same amount of time to domestic labour regardless of the extra work involved in raising children.
It has been suggested by Stephen Edgell that women now generally have control over purchasing of food, clothing of the children, decoration of the family home etc whilst men decide the more ‘serious’ issues such as moving house, expensive purchase such as new cars etc. It seems that although in modern family structures women do seem to have more equality in the decision making process, the concept of the Husband having final say still exists to some degree.
In Modern contemporary family life there still seems to persist an underlying power struggle between men and women. Some would say that this often manifests itself in some sort of violent outburst. Family Violence or more specifically violence towards women in the household has become an increasingly worrying factor. Researchers note that “men initiate most family violence and women suffer most of the injuries” (Straud and Gelles, 1986, Schwartz 1987). Even more worrying is that Domestic violence is no longer exclusively aimed at the female in the family or relationship. The register of Children at Risk, created by Social Workers to protect children from abuse stated that in the year 2000 a massive 30,300 children were deemed to be “at risk”. Furthermore nearly 40% of these children were under five years of age. (Department of Heath and Social Services web page). It is as interesting sideline to note that violence is thought of as a recent development in family life as opposed to a form of violence that always existed in family circles but with I would suggest that it was perhaps viewed in older days as a problem to be sorted out between a man and his wife where as modern society has implemented new laws to protect from this sort of behaviour and make it an unlawful act.
In contemporary society, as well as examining the role of men and women, one mustn’t forget the debate surrounding contemporary family values. This subject of debate focuses on what does or does not constitute a family in a moral and political fashion. Weston, (1991) noted that people with or without legal or blood ties who feel they belong together wish to define themselves as a family. This would include such groups as gays and lesbians, and people living together as though they are married. These people would be regarded as families of choice.
In my conclusion I would suggest that in contemporary society the modern family in many ways may be deemed a more democratic one. However this by no means suggests that in modern society men and women are treated as equals. There are many ways in which this is far from being the case. In many modern households, men and women both tend to have jobs, but it is still mainly women who carry out the majority of domestic chores. In addition to this, one has to remember that domestic violence plays a large part in modern society. That is not to say that domestic violence was not always in existence. The fact is that there are many organisations nowadays for victims of this crime to turn to for support, such as Women’s Aid and many help lines available. This is why this important issue is being recognised more and more. In contemporary society too, let’s not forget the fact that family life is moving further away from what was the norm, being the nuclear family consisting of a male and female and their children. Nowadays the rise of divorce rates, pregnancy outside marriage and co-habiting are all major issues in contemporary family life. Also the more recent upsurge and proliferation of gay and lesbian relationships and marriages cannot be ignored. All these issues show how family life in the twenty-first century has radically changed.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PAUL TAYLOR ,SOCIOLOGY IN FOCUS
JOHN J MACIONIS AND KEN PLUMMER, SOCIOLOGY, A GLOBAL INTRODUCTION
FLETCHER, THE FAMILY AND MARRIAGE OF BRITAIN
OAKLEY, HOUSEWIFE, 1974
WWW.SOCIOLOGY.ORG
