1. The Family and the Domestic Division of Labour

3. Talcott Parsons and his instrumental and expressive roles

5. It appears that housework is a relatively modern invention. In pre-industrial times, household tasks were not clearly distinguished from more general economic tasks, such as working on the farm, tending to the animals, baking and the various activities of cottage industries (Pahl, 1948).

6. During the Industrial Revolution, men became increasingly identified with the public world of production and wage labour, while women were confined to the private sphere of consumption and the home. What do you think is meant by: the public world of production and the private sphere of consumption?

7. In the traditional nuclear family… The husband has an instrumental role! The women has an expressive role! Talcott Parsons (1955)

9. To achieve success at work.

10. To provide financial support for family.

11. ‘Breadwinner’

12. Expressive role

13. Primary socialisation of the children.

14. Meeting the family’s emotional needs.

16. Criticisms of Parsons

17. Elizabeth Bott (1957) Segregated conjugal roles – where the couple have separate roles: a male breadwinner and a female homemaker/carer (as in Parsons’ roles). Their leisure activities also tend to be separate. Joint conjugal roles – where the couple share tasks such as housework and childcare and spend their leisure time together.

18. Another view ….. Domestic labour serves the needs of the capitalist economy Marxist-feminists argue that housewives by cooking, washing her husband’s clothes and even sleeping with him makes her partner into a more productive worker. In addition, by producing and rearing children, at no cost to employers, housewives play a vital part in the reproduction of labour.