Conjugal Roles and the Domestic Division of Labour (Set 2)
The domestic division of labour is how a couple splits housework, childcare and emotion work, the largely invisible effort of managing a family's emotional wellbeing, and sociological research shows women, on average, continue to carry out a greater share of it than men despite most now being in paid employment.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- Open by stating the key finding this topic is built around: despite rising female employment, the division of domestic labour and emotional responsibility remains, on average, unequal.
- Use Duncombe and Marsden's 'triple shift' as the named concept that captures why the inequality is broader than housework alone, paid work, domestic labour, and emotion work combine to create a heavier overall load for many women.
- Use Gershuny's 'lagged adaptation'/cultural lag explanation as the mechanism for WHY the gap persists: cultural attitudes about whose job domestic work is change more slowly than women's employment patterns.
- Compare at least two competing explanations for the persistence of inequality: the radical feminist patriarchal ideology explanation and the resource/bargaining-power explanation, so the answer shows range rather than relying on a single cause.
- Keep this topic distinct from the classic 'symmetrical family' debate about whether roles have BECOME equal, by focusing instead on WHY inequality persists despite social change.
- For a 'discuss'/'assess' question on why inequality persists, weigh the cultural-lag and patriarchal-ideology explanations against evidence that some couples, especially where women earn more, do achieve a more equal division of labour, before reaching a conclusion.
Worked example
A woman works full-time, does most of the housework and childcare, and is usually the one who remembers birthdays, arranges childcare and checks in on how other family members are feeling. Using Duncombe and Marsden's concept, explain what this example shows, and give one sociological explanation for why this pattern is common.
- Identify the relevant concept: this is an example of the 'triple shift', Duncombe and Marsden's term for women combining paid work, domestic labour and emotion work.
- Break down the example using the concept: her paid work is the first shift, the housework and childcare is the second, domestic, shift, and remembering birthdays, arranging childcare and checking on others' emotional wellbeing is the third, emotion work, shift.
- State one explanation for the pattern: Gershuny's 'lagged adaptation' argues that although women's employment has increased quickly, cultural expectations about who is responsible for domestic and emotional labour have changed more slowly, leaving many women doing a disproportionate share.
- Add a second explanation for range: radical feminists would argue this reflects patriarchal ideology, the deep-rooted idea that domestic and emotional care work is naturally or properly a woman's role, which benefits men by freeing them from this labour.
- Conclude: the example shows inequality persisting across three linked areas of work, which sociologists explain through both a cultural-lag mechanism and a wider patriarchal ideology.
Practice questions
Try each question, then tap to reveal the answer.
Q1Who introduced the concept of the 'triple shift'?Show answer
Answer: Jane Duncombe and Dennis Marsden.
Q2What are the three parts of the 'triple shift'?Show answer
Answer: Paid work, domestic, housework and childcare, labour, and emotion work.
Q3What is meant by 'emotion work' in the context of family life?Show answer
Answer: The largely invisible effort of managing and supporting the family's emotional wellbeing, such as noticing and responding to other family members' moods and needs.
Q4What is Gershuny's concept of 'lagged adaptation'?Show answer
Answer: The idea that although women's participation in paid work has risen quickly, cultural attitudes and habits about who does domestic work have changed more slowly, so men's contribution has not caught up at the same pace.
Q5How would a radical feminist explain the persistence of unequal domestic labour?Show answer
Answer: As a result of patriarchal ideology, the deep-rooted belief that domestic and caring work is naturally a woman's role, which benefits men by relieving them of this labour.
Q6According to resource-based explanations of power, what usually predicts who does less domestic work in a couple?Show answer
Answer: The partner who earns more or holds more economic resources, since this can give them more bargaining power to do less domestic labour.
Q7Give one reason the 'triple shift' concept adds to earlier ideas about conjugal roles.Show answer
Answer: It highlights emotion work as a distinct, often overlooked, third form of labour, in addition to paid work and physical domestic tasks such as cleaning and childcare.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a GCSE Sociology exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Explain two reasons why the domestic division of labour remains unequal between men and women despite rising female employment.
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'Inequality in the domestic division of labour will disappear as more women enter paid employment.' Discuss this view.
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