Many contemporary families in the West tend to share domestic duties equally. However, this was not always the case. Families in the 20th century (and even today in many parts of the world) have historically had separated conjugal roles, where women take care of household duties and childcare while men work in paid employment outside the home.
We will look at how trends around conjugal roles have changed over time and what sociologists think about these changes.
- We will first examine the definition of conjugal roles.
- Then, we will study Elizabeth Bott's concepts of segregated and joint conjugal roles.
- We will look at some examples of conjugal roles.
- Finally, we will explore different sociological perspectives on conjugal roles.
Definition of Conjugal Roles in Sociology
Conjugal roles refer to the domestic and household responsibilities of cohabiting partners.
A conjugal relationship specifies the relationship between the cohabiting couple.
Elizabeth Bott's Conjugal Roles
Elizabeth Bott studied 20 families with children aged under 10 in 1950s London. She aimed to form an idea on the nature of conjugal roles and relationships within these families, through conducting qualitative interviews with both the wives and the husbands.
Bott never claimed that her research on only these 20 families could be generalised to represent conjugal roles in wider society. Nevertheless, after the initial research, Bott (1971) differentiated two types of conjugal roles that would become important sociological concepts: segregated conjugal roles and joint conjugal roles.
Segregated Conjugal Roles
This category of conjugal roles is usually applied to heterosexual nuclear families, where the duties of the husband and wife are different and separate. Other characteristics are as follows:
Responsibilities within the households are clearly divided into “male” and “female” tasks.
This was especially the norm in the early 20th century. Women are expected to solely manage all household responsibilities and childrearing, while men are expected to work and act as the main breadwinner of the family.
Men and women spend their leisure time separately. Husbands have different interests and different groups of friends from their wives.
Families are male-dominated. The men have the responsibility to earn a living, but thus are also usually the authority on how and where to spend the money.
However, it is also critical to note that conjugal roles have always differed for families of different social classes. In segregated conjugal relationships, while women of all classes are expected to be homemakers and childcarers, working-class women also have to take up paid labour outside the home to make ends meet. In contrast, middle-class women have tended to manage their households and oversee their staff, such as maids and nannies.
Joint Conjugal Roles
As you can tell from the title, joint conjugal roles are generally more equal and shared, and can be applied to different types of families. They mean that domestic responsibilities are shared relatively equally between partners. There is no clear division between “male” and “female” tasks.
The husband and wife spend a lot of their leisure time together, they share many interests and many friends.
Many sociologists claim that this has become the new norm in families, thanks to the feminist movement and women’s entry into the workforce.
In contemporary Western society, men and women tend to share both domestic and public responsibilities and tasks, at least in theory. This type of family is called a ‘symmetrical family’ by Willmot and Young.
Nevertheless, sociologists who are critical of the idea of the symmetrical family have found that even in homes where both partners believe that the responsibilities are equally shared, women do more for their families than men. Some theorists have also argued that heterosexual marriage cannot ever be completely equal in a patriarchal society. They contend that homosexual couples share conjugal roles more equally.
Fig. 1 - Joint conjugal roles mean that both partners take part in the domestic tasks.
Examples of Conjugal Roles
When it comes to segregated conjugal roles, men would be responsible for wage labour and for “male” domestic tasks, such as mowing the lawn or taking out the rubbish. Women are expected to take care of the children, do the cleaning, the grocery shopping and the cooking. They are also responsible for throwing parties, organising events and entertaining their husbands’ friends and colleagues.
Within the context of joint conjugal roles, husbands and wives share domestic duties among themselves. This means that both partners take part in cleaning, shopping, cooking, and childrearing. They also make decisions about the family, money, and the household together.
Sociological Perspectives on Conjugal Roles
Sociologists of different branches all have diff perspectives on conjugal roles. Let's look at what functionalism, Marxism, and feminism has to say.
The functionalist perspective on conjugal roles:
Functionalists tend to view traditional family structures and segregated conjugal roles in a positive light.
Key functionalist sociologist Talcott Parsons claimed that gender roles are allocated according to the functions of each parent. He believed that men take up the instrumental role of breadwinner and women the expressive role of mother and homemaker because they are biologically suited to these specific roles. Women have the ability to bear children, so they are “naturally” best suited to raising them as well. At the same time, men’s physical abilities set them up best for working and earning wages.
Parsons also argued that seeing the separate conjugal roles of the parents is essential in a child’s primary socialisation or upbringing.
Fig. 2 - Children learn gender roles through watching their parents act in segregated conjugal roles based on their sex.
The Marxist perspective on conjugal roles:
Marxist sociologists are critical of separate conjugal roles. They argue that the separation of conjugal roles in the home creates a hierarchy within the family, which resembles the hierarchy of capitalist society. The children who grow up in these family types learnt to adapt to the capitalist values and rules which help the ruling class maintain their position in society.
Marxists compare the experience of different social classes with conjugal roles. They conclude that working-class women suffer more from the segregation of conjugal roles than middle-class women, who have more control over their family life.
In general, Marxists advocate for a more equal division of labour, both within and outside the home.
The feminist perspective on conjugal roles:
Ann Oakley (1974) researched housework and found that women do the majority of it, even in the second half of the 20th century. She noticed that when men claim that they participate in domestic duties, they often refer to activities such as ironing their own clothes.
According to Oakley, working-class men participate less in domestic work than middle-class men. It seemed that working-class men refused to participate in housework even when they were unemployed and their female partners worked full-time. It was considered “unmasculine” to do chores around the house.
Oakley argued that in the 1970s, instead of joining conjugal roles between partners, women took up a ‘dual burden’ of a paid job and domestic duties.
Conjugal Roles - Key Takeaways
- Conjugal roles refer to the domestic and household responsibilities of cohabiting partners.
- Elizabeth Bott (1971) differentiated between two types of conjugal roles: segregated conjugal roles and joint conjugal roles.
- Segregated conjugal roles mean that the responsibilities within the households are clearly divided into "male" and "female" tasks.
- Joint conjugal roles mean that domestic responsibilities are shared relatively equally between partners.
- Functionalists believe that conjugal roles are segregated based on the functions of the genders, which is a good thing. Marxists are critical of the hierarchy within segregated conjugal roles and relationships, and so are feminists, who argue women are exploited through them.
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