Feminist Views on Conjugal Roles

• Feminists have a negative view on conjugal roles as they believe that females are exploited in the family
• Delphy and Leonard believe that men are the main beneficiaries of the exploitation of women's labour. They believe that family is based on patriarchy
• Domestic Labour:

  • Delphy and Leonard have recognised that to a limited extent men are doing some housework. They believe that women make the largest contribution which men gain the most.
  • Delphy and Leonard believe that family has a main role in keeping patriarchy alive.
  • When women have paid employment they still have to do household tasks which are not equally shared with their male partners
• Supporting their Husbands:

  • The women have to do the housework and caring roles for the family as well as supporting their husbands with leisure and work activities.
  • Women support their husbands with administration work by indirectly giving emotional support and guidance if their are any problems at work
• Statistics:

  • In 1996 out of the families that were studied only in 4% the man was the main carer
  • In 1983 Mary Boulton found that less than 20% of husbands did a big role in childcare
  • In 2012 from ten years earlier there was just over 6,000 more full-time, stay-at-home dads and 44,000 women had stopped being stay-at-home mothers
• Evaluation:

  • Functionalists argue that feminists look too much at the negative side of family life as it can ignore the possibility that women could enjoy running the home, raising children and being married.
  • Feminists ignore Willmott and Young's ideas on the symmetrical family, and how family life is more equal with shared conjugal roles.
• Oakley, Delphy and Leonard, as well as other feminists believe that women are exploited in the home to benefit the man instead of capitalism.