Functionalist Views on Conjugal Roles

• Argues that women being housewives and men being breadwinners is important as these are the characteristics that they have
• Functionalists (Parsons) believe that women should take on the expressive role while the man takes on the instrumental role
• Each partner has an important role to play to keep society running smoothly
• Believe that primary socialisation is done correctly (boys have the instrumental role while girls have the expressive role) if 'gender role socialisation' is made to be an important part
• Parsons believed that working life in an industrial society is stressful the family can reduce this stress and this reduces conflict in society. This is the warm bath theory.
• Evaluation:

  • It ignores conflict in the family as it only looks at the roles of men and women
  • Parsons' view is old fashioned as the majority of women are now in paid work and there are now blurring gender roles
  • They ignore how women suffer from the sexual division of labour in the family and women suffer from the burden of extra work