Changes in Family Reationships

• Conjugal roles


  The roles or the jobs or the tasks that are played by people in a marriage or a cohabiting relationship
• Segregated conjugal roles


  • Separate roles between a man and a woman or a husband and wife
  • Separate work
  • Separate housework
  • Separate leisure time
• Joint/shared conjugal roles

  • Shared roles
  • Sharing work
  • Sharing domestic tasks
  • Sharing leisure time
  • Interchangeable roles
• Instrumental role (Parsons)


  The role of the man to go out and earn money for the family
• Expressive role (Parsons)


  The role of the woman to stay at home, look after the kids, and make sure the house is nice
• Neo-conventional family


  Families where both partners (mum and dad) work
• Reasons for changes in conjugal roles include:
• Changes in gender roles


  • Women have greater chance of work due to equality policies
  • Increased participation of women in paid work
• Changes in social attitudes


  • Reduced stigma around women working and men taking on traditionally feminine tasks
  • Rise of the 'new man'
• Changes in technology


  • Labor-saving devices at home
  • Commercialization of housework
  • Changes in workplace technology
• Willmott and Young's research on conjugal roles in the 1950s and 1970s
• Their research found a move towards more shared/joint conjugal roles
• Service jobs


  Jobs that do not require physical fitness or strength, often involving using a computer and/or telephone
• Changes in gender roles, social activities, and technology

  Have contributed to more joined up conjugal roles
• Conjugal roles


  The division of domestic work and responsibilities between partners in a household
• Wilma and Young's research


  • Studied how families and households divide domestic work in the 1950s and 1970s
  • Found conjugal roles becoming more equal and interchangeable between men and women
• Symmetrical families


  Families where men and women do very similar or interchangeable domestic tasks
• Stratified diffusion


  The process where the culture and way of life of wealthier people filters down to the rest of society
• Purchasing labour-saving devices


  Example of stratified diffusion leading to more symmetrical families
• Ann Oakley's research


  • Criticised Willmott and Young's concept of symmetrical families
  • Found women still did the vast majority of domestic work and childcare
• Dual burden


  Women doing both paid work and the majority of domestic work and childcare
• Child-centric


  Families and society placing children at the centre of everything
• Childhood as a social construct


  The concept of childhood differs across time, place and culture, and is not a natural phenomenon
• Boomerang children


  Adult children who move back in with their parents, often due to difficulties becoming financially independent