The Symmetrical Family
Sociology: AQA A Level, topic 4.3.1
The Symmetrical Family
Gender roles, domestic labour and power relationships within the family in contemporary society.
Domestic division of labour
- The domestic division of labour refers to the way gender roles are assigned within the family, such as the man as breadwinner and the woman as homemaker, known as instrumental and expressive roles.
- Partners in these traditional kinds of relationships are also likely to have separate friends and engage in different leisure activities.
The march of progress
- Symmetrical families refer to those that are equally balanced and flexible and where partners share both the instrumental and expressive roles.
- Young and Willmott support the ‘march of progress’ view of modern families, in that families are becoming less patriarchal and more symmetrical.
Living standards
- Bott describes this as a change from segregated conjugal roles to joint conjugal roles and suggests a number of factors that have led to this, such as:
- Improved living standards e.g. labour-saving consumer goods and better housing have resulted in couples being more home-centred.
Social mobility
- The decline in the extended family, coupled with greater social mobility leads to looser networks of friends and kin form both male and female partners to mix with and reduces the pressure on newly married/cohabiting couples to retain traditional segregated roles.
Women's rights
- With the improved status and rights for women and with more women in paid employment, men are being encouraged to view women on equal terms.
Domestic labour
- The commercialisation of domestic labour means that there are many consumer goods that help to ease the burden of domestic labour, such as washing machines and dishwashers, and home delivery of groceries, although these may only be accessible to the middle-classes.
Postmodernists
- Postmodernists argue that couples are free to pick ‘n’ mix roles and identities leading to the weakening of traditional gender identities, which in turn, weakens the gendered division of housework and childcare.
Test yourself on The Symmetrical Family
Who support the ‘march of progress’ view of modern families, in that families are becoming less patriarchal and symmetrical?