Component 1 Section B: conjugal roles and the domestic division of labour, including the march of progress view of the symmetrical family, feminist critiques, and the concepts of the dual burden and triple shift.

What this dot point is asking

OCR Section B examines conjugal roles, the roles of partners within a couple, and asks whether the domestic division of labour has become equal. You need the "march of progress" claim that the family is now symmetrical, the feminist counter that women still carry a dual or triple burden, and the studies on each side. It is a classic evaluation essay.

The answer

The march of progress view

Young and Willmott take a march of progress view: family life is gradually improving and becoming more equal. They argue the symmetrical family has emerged, in which conjugal roles are increasingly joint, with men helping in the home, partners sharing leisure, and the couple home-centred. This is most common among younger, geographically and socially mobile couples. Gershuny adds that as more women work full time, men gradually do more domestic work, though with a time-lag.

The feminist critique

Feminists reject the symmetry claim. Oakley argues that the symmetrical family is a myth: women still do the great majority of housework and childcare, and most husbands merely help occasionally rather than share equally. She identifies a dual burden for women who do paid work and domestic work.

Bott distinguishes segregated from joint conjugal roles and links them to social networks and class. Duncombe and Marsden go further with the triple shift: women do paid work, housework and emotion work, the unseen labour of managing the family's feelings and relationships. Edgell's study of decision-making found that men still make the major decisions (such as finance and moving house), showing inequality in power as well as tasks.

Is gender the real driver?

Dunne's study of lesbian couples found a far more symmetrical division of labour, with tasks shared rather than gendered. This suggests that the inequality in heterosexual couples is driven by gender norms, not simply by who works the longer hours, a powerful evaluative point.

Examples in context

A top answer sets the march of progress claim against the feminist evidence, uses Dunne to argue gender is the driver, and judges that change is real but incomplete.

Try this

Q1. Outline two findings that challenge the idea of the symmetrical family. [4 marks]

• What the marker wants. Two findings (AO1, two marks each): Oakley showing women still do most housework, and Edgell showing men make the major decisions, each briefly developed.

Q2. Outline and explain two reasons why the domestic division of labour may be becoming more equal. [12 marks]

• Cue. Two developed points: more women in full-time paid work prompting men to do more (Gershuny), and changing gender attitudes reducing the expectation that housework is "women's work", each applied to an example.