Assess the Functionalist View of the Domestic Division of Labour. (21 Marks)

Assess the functionalist view of the domestic division of labour. (21 marks)

Domestic division of labour refers to the roles me and women play, in relation to housework, childcare and paid. Functionalist such as Young and Willmott believe and see that the family domestic division of labour has taken a ‘march of progress’. With this march of progress view they believe that the family life improving for all members within in the family and it’s becoming fairer.

Young and Willmot believe the family has become more symmetrical as the roles within the household are becoming towards joint conjugal roles rather than the traditional segregated roles. They believe reasons for the family becoming more symmetrical are due to more women going to work so this causes men to now help and take over with housework and childcare.

On the other hand feminist Ann Oakley found that only 15% of husbands had a high level participation and only 25% had a high level of participation in childcare. This research shows that roles within the household are joint conjugal roles and women still do an very high percentage of the work along with working as well which results in women taking the dual burden.

Ann Oakley research illustrates how Young and Willmot view is exaggerated due to high percentage of women still doing most of the housework in a household.   Feminists such as Ann Oakley reject the march of progress view and believe in the family it’s still unequal within the family also very little has changed.

In spite of Ann Oakley’s research, her research doesn’t have high validity due to the response of ‘high participation levels’ is not measurable and doesn’t transfer into true quantitative data. Plus due to her data not being representative and mainly asking housewives. Even though feminists claim that Young and Willmott’s views are exaggerated, Oakleys research doesn’t truly doesn’t back up their point due to low validity and representativeness.
 
Comparing it to Yong and Willmott...