Using the item and your own knowledge, assess the contribution of feminist sociologists to the understanding of family roles and relationships

The similarities between the 3 different feminists views  is that they all agree that men have more power than women and are more controlling.  However there are some differences between the roles.  Each view has a different argument about the negative of the family and relationships. However all views include the wrong doing of men.

Anne Oakley a feminist, found that less than 15% of husbands helped there wives with domestic labour. However this was more due to helping with childcare and taking on the fun activities with them.  For women in the relationship that are in full time of part time work take on a triple shift. This is the idea that women take on work, domestic labour and emotional work.

 A criticism of the feminist view is that it ignores family diversity which is referred to in item 2b.  This means that depending on the family men and women tend to have different roles. For example younger couples are more likely to share roles within the family and relationship, and are therefore more equal.  

Elizabeth Bott came up with the two roles in a relationship, the expressive and the instrumental. The instrumental role is the male role, which earn a living for a family. A breadwinner was a common job taken on by this role. The women would therefore take on the expressive role which is doing the domestic work. This was also known as the homemaker. These roles show inequality amongst men and women. It also shows the negative view of relationships and the family and is therefore similar to the feminist argument. It also shows men having more power than women and also the oppression of women.

Overall there are many different views of the family and relationships. Each have different views and some are positive and some negative.

Rachael Foster