“Assess the view that ‘the division of labour’ within couple

In the first stage, the Pre-Industrial family was extended and everyone lived and worked together. They therefore had joint conjugal roles, meaning they shared duties. In the second stage, the Early Industrial family were extended families beginning to become geographically mobile, dying out and becoming less common. In this stage, there were segregated conjugal roles: the husband did not take part in the raising of children and household work, but was the breadwinner of the family by going out to earn money. Men spent their leisure time away from home, socialising with work mates and the females spent their time at home, only socialising with female kin and neighbours. In the third stage, the Symmetrical Family had appeared, once again with joint conjugal roles.

According to Wilmott and Young, this is the type of family most people of today are living in. Partners share responsibility for decisions that would affect the whole family, and men and women spend more time at home, with men now being involved with the raising of children and household work. Wilmott and Young believe that the family went fr

Like Ann Oakley, Martin & Roberts and Devine all looked at domestic division of labour. Devine found that an increasing proportion of women work part time and this often results in a greater involvement by men in childcare and to a lesser extent, housework. Martin & Roberts also found that men were more likely to take an active part in housework and childcare if their wife had a paid job. But they also found that 54% of women who worked full time and 77% of women who worked part time still did all or most of the housework and childcare.

Bott has been criticised for her methodology of research as she only looked at 20 couples. Her measurements of network connectedness and degree of conjugal roles has also been criticised for being imprecise. However, her work remains influential and has stimulated considerable research as she found evidence of segregate conjugal roles. Therefore, not all marriages can be defined as egalitarian or equal. This is how her view differs from Wilmott and Young, as she doesn't believe that social class is the only factor contributing to the way conjugal roles become either segregated or joint.

However, although all four looked at domestic division of labour and came up with the same results, housework and childcare produce a picture that women do more work than men. What is not shown is that tasks such as cleaning the car or DIY take up more time and more effort than housework and childcare and so that reveals that when men do work, they work longer and harder than women. Also, the paid hours for men tend to be longer than women's unpaid household duties and the difference in hours in paid work and the amount of work women do with housework and childcare was not that great.

Elizabeth Bott disagrees with both Ann Oakley and Wilmott and Young. She conducted a study in Greater London on 20 families and she found a relationship between conjugal roles and social clas

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