Roles and Relationships

• • Functionalists such as Murdock and Parsons view traditional gender roles as functional. Parsons claimed that it made sense for women to care for the children they gave birth to in an expressive, domestic role, while men went out into the world as breadwinners - the instrumental role.
• • The New Right also welcomes women taking this role, supported by a responsible male worker.
• • Post-modernists are interested in the way roles have been questioned and changed since the mid-twentieth century, suggesting that people now have the freedom to forge their own identity and life course regardless of gender and othe characteristics.
• • Feminists see gender roles as much harder to change and oppressive to women. They have examined the domestic division of labour between couples, decision making and power relations.